The Study of Plant Microbial Fuel Cell for Alternative Energy Source

Abstract

The new and renewable energy technology MFC (Microbial Fuel Cell) is quite promising to produce electrical energy. However, MFC requires expensive nutrients such as glucose and maltose for the microbes to be active to produce electrons. Another weakness of MFC is its very short lifespan for electricity production, which is approximately around 10 days. To overcome this, P-MFC (Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell) technology was developed where nutrients for microbes are provided through humus for plants. To determine microbial activity, the research method was carried out with P-MFC using humus plus EM4 and variations in the number of Water Spinach, namely 20 and 25 stems. The values of voltage, current and electrical power of the P-MFC are measured for a period of an hour per day with the P-MFC circuit being loaded and without load. The results showed that 25 stems of Water Spinach have more microbial activities than 20 stems of Water Spinach. The 25 stems P-MFC produced 762.4 mV no-load average voltage and 125.8 mV, 085 mA for load condition, and the 20 stems produced 527.2 mV no-load average voltage and 58.94 mV, 0.28 mA for load condition. The result shows that the more stems of Water spinach more the activities of microbes.