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    STUDIA AMBIENTUM - Issue no. 2 / 2011  
         
  Article:   A NEW TYPE OF MICROBIAL FUEL CELL - WITH SOLID ELECTROLYTES.

Authors:  TIMEA-VARVARA KATONA, MIRCEA ANTON.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  

The Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) are usually formed by liquid electrolytes. This study demonstrates that it is possible to realize an MFC two chambers type with both the microbes from anode and cyanobacteria from cathode immobilized onto the electrodes. The anode was filled with sludge collected from the waste water plant, and the cathode was filled with cyanobacteria Synechocystis C51 in nutritive solution. Three types of cells were realized: liquid-liquid, gel-gel with Nafion membrane between the chambers and gel-gel without membrane. The bacterial cells were subjected to a two-day cycle of light/darkness - 24 hours light and 24 hours darkness. The power density increased by 50% at 2.5 klux during light compared to that corresponding at 130 klux during darkness. The power density dependence on light shows that the cyanobacteria present in the cathode, even immobilized in gel, produces oxygen through photosynthesis. This means that the cathode aeration, which consumes energy in the case of common MFCs, can be replaced successfully with oxygen produced by the cyanobacteria. The power density of the three types of bacterial cells used in the study have comparable values. The MFC''''s with immobilized electrolytes works just as well as the classics, with liquid electrolytes.

 

Key words: immobilized cyanobacteria, microbial fuel cell, Synechocystis

 
         
     
         
         
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