Integrated power converter design for bioturbation resilience in multi-anode microbial fuel cells

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are an important renewable energy source for underwater sensors. However, bioturbation problems cause short circuits in MFCs. Using distributed multiple anodes can effectively solve this problem. This paper presents a new power converter design that automatically detects the impaired anodes and disconnects them from the rest of the system for better energy efficiency and robustness. The evaluation was made by using 90 nm CMOS technology. The proposed power converter provides 42% more end-to-end efficiency than conventional design under the worst-case scenario.