A Microfluidic Platform for Evaluating Anode Substrates for Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell technology is a new technology for producing green energy from wastewater. While lab scale and commercial microbial fuel cells typically utilize graphite as the film substrate, it is difficult to rapidly prototype micro-patterned graphite and it has not been used to date. Our design sandwiches graphite sheets under a channel layer creating a microfluidic microbial fuel cell with graphite electrodes. The microfluidic microbial fuel cell uses Geobacter sulfurreducens fed with acetate in a phosphate buffer media. Ferricyanide is used as the catholyte so that the system is anodically limited. Current versus time and open circuit voltage are reported showing biofilm growth microbial fuel cell operation.