Comparison in performance of sediment microbial fuel cells according to depth of embedded anode

Effect of Operating Parameters on the Performance Evaluation of Benthic Microbial Fuel Cells Using Sediments from the Bay of Campeche, Mexico

“…The content of OM in the sediment used in the study carried out by An et al (2013) was 7.2% and they observed that when placing a BMFC in a sediment with high organic load, a maximum potential is obtained of 0.26 V using a 1 kΩ external resistance, the anode being evaluated at different depths (from 2 to 10 cm), obtaining the maximum power density and current at a depth of 10 cm, similar to the figures obtained in this study [15].…”

“…The highest values observed at these distances between electrodes in both seasons are presented in Table 1. This result indicates that the potential of the anode is more negative with respect to the depth of the electrode, similar to the change in the redox potential existing in the nature of the sediment [15,61,62].…”

“…The height of the structures was calculated with respect to the separation between electrodes [10,15,36,37]. …”

“…The depths in the sediment at which the anode electrode was evaluated were 5 and 10 cm [12,15,21,27,38]. The distances at which the floating air cathode electrode was placed on the surface of the sediment were 5, 10, 50 and 100 cm as shown in Figure 2 [10,12,21,27,38,39].…”

“…This behavior can be improved if the electrode is placed at a depth where anodophilic and electrophilic species, such as bacteria that reduce metals or sulfate, are present (Redox potential where sulfate-reducing bacteria are found: −240 mV). The concentration of substances varies from sediment to sediment depending on the environment, changing the concentrations of OM (0.4 to 2.2%) and microbial communities [15]. The low content of OM could be a limiting factor in the transfer of mass in a BMFC, decreasing the density of current and power generated [24].…”