Bioelectrochemical system development and operation
Bioelectrorchemical system (BES) and microbial fuel cell (MFC) are bioreactors that can generate electricity using electrochemically active microorganisms from a variety of biologically degradable organic materials and/or wastewater. Biologically catalyzed oxidation and reduction reactions provide the potential difference to drive electron transfer from the anode to the cathode through a external load. MFC has been applied to many biosystems such as bioconversion, wastewater treatment, biosensor and useful resource recovery. Various reactor configurations have been developed. The followings are MFC reactors which are being operated in our lab.
Power management system for BES
MFC and BES are dynamic systems because the performance of the live cell bacteria is affected significantly by the operating environment and conditions, such as the internal and external impedances, substrate concentration, pH, and temperature. The electroactive microorganisms adapt to the reactor state, and changes their metabolic pathways dynamically to optimize the survivability under those conditions. On the other hand, the microbial activity also influences the cell state and operating conditions. Usually MFC generates low output voltage and power density from biodegradable biomass. Power management system (PMS) can upgrade voltage and power upto practical value. We have investigated various PMS strategies such as Maximum power point tracking method (MPPT) and DC-DC boost converter for MFCs.