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Performance Studies of Anode Microbial Fuel Cells Using Geobacter Sulfurreducens as a Biocatalyst

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ICGSCE 2014

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) is a bio-electrochemical device that converts organic substrate into electricity by electrogenic bacteria. In the MFC, anode compartment plays an important role in achieving high power density and thereby improving the cell performance. In this study, Geobacter sulfurreducens was used as a biocatalyst to catalyze the generation of electricity by using acetate as an oxidizing agent and sodium fumarate as a reducing agent. The polarization curve was determined after MFC system was reached at open circuit voltage (OCV) around 0.80 V and gives maximum power production of about 0.22 mW. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) method was performed in order to evaluate the oxidation and reduction processes in a batch of MFC before and after attachment of Geobacter sulfurreducens cells and it was proved by scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Overall, this study provides a convenient way for evaluating the performance of MFC.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by funding through the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) (Acc Number: 6071232) by Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and Postgraduate Research Grant Scheme (PRGS) (Acc Number: 8046005) by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

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Correspondence to Suhairi Abdul Sata .

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Shoparwe, N.F., Uzir, M.H., Abdul Sata, S. (2015). Performance Studies of Anode Microbial Fuel Cells Using Geobacter Sulfurreducens as a Biocatalyst. In: Hashim, M. (eds) ICGSCE 2014. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-505-1_41

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