Energy from algae using microbial fuel cells

Abstract

Bioelectricity production from a phytoplankton, Chlorella vulgaris, and a macrophyte, Ulva lactuca was examined in single chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs). MFCs were fed with the two algae (as powders), obtaining differences in energy recovery, degradation efficiency, and power densities. C. vulgaris produced more energy generation per substrate mass (2.5 kWh/kg), but U. lactuca was degraded more completely over a batch cycle (73 +/- 1% COD). Maximum power densities obtained using either single cycle or multiple cycle methods were 0.98 W/m(2) (277 W/m(3)) using C. vulgaris, and 0.76 W/m(2) (215 W/m(3)) using U. lactuca. Polarization curves obtained using a common method of linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) overestimated maximum power densities at a scan rate of 1 mV/s. At 0.1 mV/s, however, the LSV polarization data was in better agreement with single- and multiple-cycle polarization curves. The fingerprints of microbial communities developed in reactors had only 11% similarity to inocula and clustered according to the type of bioprocess used. These results demonstrate that algae can in principle, be used as a renewable source of electricity production in MFCs.

Disc Stack Centrifugation Separation and Cell Disruption of Microalgae: A Technical Note

“…Many types of algal biofuel have been considered, including biogas, bio-hydrogen, algal fuel cells, bioethanol and direct algal biomass combustion (Benemann, 2000;Kruse & Hankamer, 2010;McKendry, 2002;Strik, Terlouw, Hamelers, &Buisman, 2008;Velasquez-Orta, Curtis, & Logan, 2009;Verma, Mehrotra, Shukla, & Mishra, 2010).The demand for liquid fuels, however, coupled with the potential high lipid content of some microalgal species under certain conditions, has resulted in much of the work focusing on the production of biodiesel and other liquid biofuels derived from microalgal lipids.. Unfortunately after some 70 years of research Many types of filters have been used to harvest algae and filtration has been found satisfactory at recovering relatively large algal cells (Molina Grima, Belarbi, Acien-Fernandez, Robles-Medina, & Yusuf, 2003), but can be hampered by low through put and rapid clogging (Mohn, 1988;Oswald, 1988).…”

Bioelectricity Production from Various Feedstocks Using Pure Strain of Bacillus firmus

“…It is composed of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids, serves as nutrient source for the microbes. Hence use of algae biomass in MFC is a promising approach to generate electricity (Strik et al 2008;Velasquez-Orta, Curtis and Logan, 2009;Yuan et al 2011;Lakaniemi, Tuovinen and Puhakka, 2012;Rashid et al 2013;Kondaveeti et al 2014;Gajda et al 2015). Experimental data illustrated the feasibility and sustainability of using cynobacterial biomass as anodic substrate with microbial strain of B. firmus NMBL-03 in MFCal for bioelectricity generation.…”

Microbial Fuel Cells as Alternate Source of Energy: Research, Advancements and Future Prospects in Indian Scenario

“…These electrons are captured by a suitable anode, which then combine with protons and oxygen in the cathode chamber to form water and usable electric current [16]. Most common microbes being used in MFCs are bacteria [16], yeast [17] and algae [18,19]. Microbial fuel cells are capable of harvesting more than 90 % of the electrons from organic compounds.…”