Autonomous ultra-low power DC/DC converter for Microbial Fuel Cells

Adami, S-E.; Degrenne, Nicolas; Vollaire, Christian; Allard, Bruno; Buret, François; Costa, François

doi:10.1109/icecs.2011.6122297

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The mio-SMFC PMS stands out as the only self-sustainable system that can operate multiple SMFCs independently to increase the output power. The efficiencies of previous PMSs are estimated by various methods [1][2][3][4]8,10,12,[15][16][17]. For example, in [2] the efficiency of a two-stage PMS is estimated to be 56% by characterizing each stage separately and multiplying the results together; in [3] the specifications from the datasheets of individual components are reported, from which the total efficiency can be estimated at 22%; in [8] the efficiency is claimed to be 45%, but the controller is powered externally and the power loss due to the controller is not considered.…”

Section: Experiments and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Multiple SMFCs cannot be connected in series to increase the voltage if they are deployed in an open water body such as in the sea [2][3][4]. Therefore, many power management systems (PMS) have been designed to boost the voltage by employing different types of step-up voltage converters [1][2][3][4], [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. To increase the output power, it is not effective to build a larger SMFC because the power density decreases when the surface areas of the electrodes increase [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Self-Sustainable Power Management System for Reliable Power Scaling Up of Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells

Tang

Hong

Ewing

et al. 2015

IEEE Trans. Power Electron.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFC) are considered a promising renewable power source for remote monitoring applications. However, existing SMFCs can only produce several milliwatts of power, and the output power is not scaled linearly with the size of SMFCs. An effective alternative method to increase the output power is to independently operate multiple SMFCs, each of which has an optimal size for maximum power density. Independently-operated SMFCs have electrically isolated electrodes (anodes/cathodes), which complicates the design of a suitable power management system (PMS). This paper describes the challenges in designing a PMS that can harvest energy from multiple independently-operated SMFCs (mio-SMFC) and accordingly proposes a design solution. From experimental results, the proposed PMS demonstrates reliable output power scaling up of mio-SMFC. The proposed PMS is self-sustainable because it is powered entirely from harvested energy without requiring additional external power sources. S 0885-8993 (c)

show abstract

Section: Experiments and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

A Self-Sustainable Power Management System for Reliable Power Scaling Up of Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells

Tang

Hong

Ewing

et al. 2015

IEEE Trans. Power Electron.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In [3] a laboratory prototype of an MFC is introduced. According to its voltage-current and its output power-load characteristics its equivalent electrical model is a 475 mV voltage source in series with a 6000 resistor.…”

Section: The Proposed Circuitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of them employ an oscillator in order to run with low input voltages [3], [4] and [5]. These converters have negative output voltage respect to their input voltage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel self-starting ultra low-power and low-voltage two-stage DC-DC boost converter for microbial energy harvesting

Ayaz

Farjah

Ghanbari

2015

The 6th Power Electronics, Drive Systems &Amp; Technologies Conference (PEDSTC2015)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents a novel self-starting low-voltage step-up DC-DC converter for energy harvesting from ultra-Iow power and low-voltage energy sources. The proposed structure consists of two stages: the first stage is an autonomous oscillator, which provides the self-start-up capability with low-input voltages, and the second stage is a controllable reverse conventional buck-boost converter. The converter is simulated using ORCAD 16.5 and also its laboratory prototype is fabricated. Simulation results and experimental tests confirm that this converter is able to harvest ultra-low powers as small as 40J.lW from a microbial fuel cell, while feeding a 510 kO load with a DC voltage over 2.7V.

show abstract

“…Adami et al [15] designed a novel DC-DC converter topology based on the Armstrong oscillator (commonly used for commercial boost converters), and reported output voltages ranging from 2 to 7.5 V from a MFC generating an OCV of only 0.475 V. The maximum power delivered was approximately 100 µW with an efficiency of 58%. On the other hand, it has been difficult to obtain more than 70% conversion efficiency from the ultra-low boost converter [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electricity Production by the Application of a Low Voltage DC-DC Boost Converter to a Continuously Operating Flat-Plate Microbial Fuel Cell

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An ultra-low voltage customized DC-DC booster circuit was developed using a LTC3108 converter, and used continuously on a flat-plate microbial fuel cell (FPM) system. The boost converter successfully stepped up the microbial fuel cell (MFC) voltage from~0.5 V to 3.3 and 5.0 V of outputs. The designed circuit and system displayed the dynamic variations of the source FPM as well as the output voltage through the designed three connection points within the booster circuit. The source MFC voltage was interrelated with the booster circuit and its performance, and it adapted to the set points of the booster dynamically. The maximum output power density of the MFC with the DC-DC booster circuit was 8.16 W/m 3 compared to the maximum source FPM input power of 14.27 W/m 3 at 100 Ω, showing a conversion efficiency of 26-57%, but with a 10-fold higher output than that of the source voltage. The combined LTC3108 with FPM supplied power for electronic devices using synthetic and real domestic wastewater. This report presents a promising strategy for utilizing the electrical energy produced from MFCs, and expands the applicability of bioelectrochemical systems with an improved energy efficiency of the present wastewater treatment system.

show abstract

Autonomous ultra-low power DC/DC converter for Microbial Fuel Cells

Cited by 15 publications

References 6 publications

A Self-Sustainable Power Management System for Reliable Power Scaling Up of Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells

A Self-Sustainable Power Management System for Reliable Power Scaling Up of Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells

A novel self-starting ultra low-power and low-voltage two-stage DC-DC boost converter for microbial energy harvesting

Electricity Production by the Application of a Low Voltage DC-DC Boost Converter to a Continuously Operating Flat-Plate Microbial Fuel Cell

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About