Advanced Fabrication, Modeling, and Testing of a Microphotosynthetic Electrochemical Cell for Energy Harvesting Applications

Abstract

Unconventional renewable energy sources are scarce and have not been explored thoroughly or exploited. The photosynthetic power cell (PSC) is one among them. Though there are few prototypes fabricated earlier, there has not been a comprehensive electrical equivalent model developed. This paper proposes an electrical equivalent model for a microphotosynthetic power cell (μPSC), which is tested and authenticated with experimental verification on a fabricated prototype. The developed model is further used for testing emulation behavior, to efficiently and accurately design an energy harvesting power electronic converter. The principle of the operation of the device is based on "photosynthesis." Photosynthesis and respiration both involve an electron transfer chain. The electrons are extracted with the help of electrodes and a redox agent, and a power electronic converter is designed to harvest the energy. The fabricated cell is capable of producing an open-circuit voltage of 0.9 V and about 200 μW of peak power. The μPSC has an active area of 4.84 cm 2 , which approximately translates to a power density of 400 mW/m 2 . This makes it as one of the best-performing μPSC. The other top-performing μPSC devices report power densities of between 100 and 250 mW/m 2 . The PSC produces energy under both dark and light conditions. Index Terms-Photosynthesis, photosynthetic power cell (PSC), power electronic converter, renewable energy.

Feasibility Studies of Micro Photosynthetic Power Cells as a Competitor of Photovoltaic Cells for Low and Ultra-Low Power IoT Applications

“…One niche advantage of µPSC is their ability to generate power both in light and dark conditions. Researchers [3,6,7] have proposed several designs of µPSCs. In this work, we have considered the dual chamber µPSC developed by Shaparnia et al [6] and Arivind et al [7].…”

“…Researchers [3,6,7] have proposed several designs of µPSCs. In this work, we have considered the dual chamber µPSC developed by Shaparnia et al [6] and Arivind et al [7]. The improvement in the performance of µPSC technology is promising and several studies have already demonstrated the use of µPSC technology for several practical applications [2,11,12].…”

“…Researchers [3,6,7] have proposed several designs of µPSCs. In this work, we have considered the dual chamber µPSC developed by Shaparnia et al [6] and Arivind et al [7]. A µPSC consists of the anode and the cathode chambers, and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) sandwiched between them.…”

“…The typical µPSC can generate an open circuit voltage (OCV) in the range of 100-900 mV and current density in the order of 100s of µA/cm 2 . Typical power produced by a µPSC varies in the range of 10-100 mW [3,[5][6][7][8][9]. Power density values of µPSC have witnessed an increase of approximately two orders of magnitude since their origin [10].…”

“…We have organized this paper as follows. Section 2 introduces PV technology and µPSCs working by considering a dual chamber µPSC as developed by [6,7]. Section 3 presents the case studies: (i) development of an energy system for mobile-phone battery charging (low power application) and (ii) development of an energy system for humidity sensor (ultra-low power application).…”