Pedosphere 24(3): 330--338, 2014
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2014 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Factors affecting the performance of single-chamber soil microbial fuel cells for power generation |
DENG Huan1,2,3, WU Yi-Cheng1, ZHANG Fan1, HUANG Zong-Chuan1, CHEN Zheng2, XU Hui-Juan1 and ZHAO Feng1 |
1Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021 (China)
2Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085 (China)
3Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing210046 (China) |
| ABSTRACT |
| There is limited information about the factors that affect the power generation of single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) using soil organic matter as a fuel source. We examined the effect of soil and water depths, and temperatureon the performance of soil MFCswithanode being embedded in the flooded soil and cathode in the overlaying water. Results showed that the MFC with 5 cm deep soil and 3 cm overlaying water exhibited the highest open circuit voltage of 562 mV and a power density of 0.72 mW m-2. The ohmic resistance increased with more soil and water. The polarization resistance of cathode increased with more soil while that of anode increased with more water. During the 30 d operation, the cell voltage positively correlated with temperature and reached a maximum of 162 mV with a 500 Ω external load. After the operation, the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from the soil and anode was sequenced. The bacteria in the soil were more diverse than those adhere to the anode where the bacteria were mainly affiliated to Escherichia coli and Deltaproteobacteria. In summary, the two bacterial groups may generate electricity and the electrical properties were affected by temperature and the depth of soil and water. |
| Key Words: electrogenic bacteria, impedance, soil depth, soil organic matter, voltage |
| Citation: Deng, H., Wu, Y. C., Zhang, F., Huang, Z. C., Chen, Z., Xu, H. J. and Zhao, F. 2014. Factors affecting the performance of single-chamber soil microbial fuel cells for power generation. Pedosphere. 24(3): 330-338. |
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