A sustainable energy source from microbes using microbial fuel cells

Abstract

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a sustainable energy source which hopes to meet the growing demand of energy in the world by providing bioelectricity. The microbes like bacteria help produce current and voltage by metabolizing the carbon source into ions which are accepted at their respective electrodes. The prototype cell designed by our team is novel, cost effective, portable and environment friendly. This microbial fuel cell is a two chambered setup containing four graphite electrodes as the anode and four aluminum electrodes as the cathode. The MFC has been optimized under various experimental condition which includes sugar concentration, surface area of the electrodes, material of the electrodes as well as the effects of reducing salts on the current and voltage.