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Energy produced from a biological resource such as biomass or biofuel

is known as bioenergy.

Need for bioenergy

To satisfy the ever increasing energy demand.

Address energy insecurity problems and attend energy independency.

Decrease over dependency on fossil fuels.

Minimize the amount of waste generated.

Source of clean and sustainable energy.

INTRODUCTION

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MICROBIAL FUEL CELL (MFC)

MFCs are bio-electrochemical systems which convert the chemical

energy stored in the organic matter into electricity through the

catalytic activity of microorganisms.

C6H12O6 + 6H2O = 6CO2 + 24e- + 24 H+

H+

H+H+

H+

H+

H+

e-

e-

e-

e-

e-

e- e-

O2

H2O

Anode Cathode

PEM

Influent

Effluent

Resistance

CO2

Microbial Fuel Cell

(Logan et al., 2006) (Ringeisen et al., 2006) (He et al., 2005)

(Min and Logan ,2004 ) (Park and Zeikus , 2003) (Rabaey et al., 2005)

MFC Configurations

IIT Kharagpur, India

Substrates used in MFC

Type of Wastewater Power density Reference

Urine wastewater 4.93 mW.m-2 Ieropoulos et al. 2012

Alcohol distillery wastewater 93 mW.m-2 Huang et al. 2011

Landfill leachate 344.0 mW.m-3 Puig et al. 2011

Molasses wastewater 116 mW.m-2 Zhong et al. 2011

Cheese whey 81.9 mW.m-3 Antonopoulou et al. 2010

Dairy based wastewater 1.1 W.m-3 Venkata Mohan et al. 2010 Distillery wastewater 1.74 W.m-3 Mohanakrishna et al. 2010

Palm oil mill effluent 44 mW.m-2 Cheng et al. 2010 Rice mill wastewater 2.3 W.m-3 Behera et al. 2010

Domestic sewage 156 mW.m-2 Venkata Mohan et al. 2009

Starch processing wastewater 239 mW.m-2 Lu et al. 2009Swine wastewater 228 mW.m-2 Kim et al. 2008 Chemical wastewater 157 mW.m-2 Venkata Mohan et al. 2008

IIT Kharagpur, India

Microbes used in MFCs

Sl.No. Mediators Reference1 Actinobacillus succinogenes Park and Zeikus, 20002 Gluconobacter oxydans Lee et al., 20023 Lactobacillus plantarum Vega and Fernandez, 19874 Pseudomonas aeruginosa Rabaey et al., 20045 Geobacter metallireducens Min et al., 2005 6 Geobacteraceae sulferreducens Bond and Lovley, 20037 Shewanella putrefaciens Kim et al., 20028 Rhodoferax ferrireducens Chaudhuri and Lovley, 2003

IIT Kharagpur, India

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Field applications

To supply power for low power marine sensors, water-based sensors, telemetry devices including acoustic receivers/transmitters, meteorological buoy (Tender et al., 2008) and other oceanographic and environmental instruments.

To operate instrumnets like Benthic Unattended Generator, or B.U.G. for prediction of Tsunamis in oceans (Lovley, 2006; Tender et al., 2008).

Serve as long-term power sources for autonomous sensors for nitrate detection in groundwater (Afsham et al., 2011)

To operate marine communication devices by wireless sensor network (WSN) node system (Yohann et al., 2013). Tender, 2003

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Thank You…

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Questions?Questions ?