Air Cathode Microbial Fuel Cell Construction and Operation

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is considered as a promising alternative to traditional power sources to transform chemical energy of organic compounds into electricity by using microorganisms as catalyst. The aim of this paper is to highlight the performance of an air cathode MFC reactor equipped with the membrane. The device was inoculated with domestic Beni Messous wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), which has been used as a source of anodic electroactive biofilm (EAB). Acetate was tested as substrates. The EAB revealed high current densities exceeding 100 mA/m2 under working electrode (WE) polarized at + 0.155 V/SCE. After 5 years of air cathode MFC operation, the maximum current density reached 0.42 A/m2. Around 51 mW/m2 was retrieved from this source and used a low power energy harvesting (EH1D) to flash a green LED.