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Investigation and Taguchi Optimization of Microbial Fuel Cell Salt Bridge Dimensional Parameters

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Abstract

One major problem of two chamber salt bridge microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is the high resistance offered by the salt bridge to anion flow. Many researchers who have studied and optimized various parameters related to salt bridge MFC, have not shed much light on the effect of salt bridge dimensional parameters on the MFC performance. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to investigate the effect of length and cross sectional area of salt bridge and the effect of solar radiation and atmospheric temperature on MFC current output. An experiment has been designed using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array, taking length and cross sectional area of salt bridge as factors having three levels. Nine MFCs were fabricated as per the nine trial conditions. Trials were conducted for 3 days and output current of each of the MFCs along with solar insolation and atmospheric temperature were recorded. Analysis of variance shows that salt bridge length has significant effect both on mean (with 53.90% contribution at 95% CL) and variance (with 56.46% contribution at 87% CL), whereas the effect of cross sectional area of the salt bridge and the interaction of these two factors is significant on mean only (with 95% CL). Optimum combination was found at 260 mm salt bridge length and 506.7 mm2 cross sectional area with 4.75 mA of mean output current. The temperature and solar insolation data when correlated with each of the MFCs average output current, revealed that both external factors have significant impact on MFC current output but the correlation coefficient varies from MFC to MFC depending on salt bridge dimensional parameters.

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Abbreviations

A1, A2, A 3 :

Three levels of factor A

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

AWG:

American wire gauge

CL:

Confidence level

CPVC:

Chlorinated poly vinyl chloride

e:

Error term in ANOVA calculation

f:

Degree of freedom (DOF)

F:

Variance ratio

F(α) Crit:

Critical F value for a particular α, DOF of a factor and DOF of error. Where α is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true

Im :

Mean output current of MFC at optimal setting

Iij :

The average current output of ith trial number on jth repetition (or day)

IDm :

Average output current density of MFC

L1, L2, L3 :

Three levels of factor L

LmAn :

MFC designation having factor L at mth and factor A at nth level

L × A:

Interaction of factor L and factor A

MFC:

Microbial fuel cell

OA:

Orthogonal array

P:

Percent contribution

Pavg :

Average output power of MFC

PDavg :

Average output power density of MFC

R:

Electrical resistance

R1, R2, R3 :

First, second and third repetition of the trial conditions

S:

Sum of squares

S′:

Pure sum of square

S/N:

Signal to noise ratio

V:

Variance

Vavg :

Average output voltage of MFC

ϒ:

Karl Pearson’s co-efficient of correlation

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, Jorhat Engineering College, Garmur, Jorhat, 785007, Assam, India

    Dhrupad Sarma, Parimal Bakul Barua, Nabendu Dey, Sumitro Nath, Mrinmay Thakuria & Synthia Mallick

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  1. Dhrupad Sarma
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  2. Parimal Bakul Barua
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Correspondence to Dhrupad Sarma.

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Sarma, D., Barua, P.B., Dey, N. et al. Investigation and Taguchi Optimization of Microbial Fuel Cell Salt Bridge Dimensional Parameters. J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. C 100, 103–112 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40032-017-0436-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40032-017-0436-0

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