Projects

MFC- Caulobactercrescentus as an Electrogen in A Dual Chambered Microbial Fuel Cell With The Novel Proton Exchange Membrane

A Microbial Fuel Cell(MFC) or Biological fuel cell is a bioelectrochemical system that drives a current by using bacteria and mimicking bacterial interactions found in nature.Usually a microbial cell consists of two electrodes separated by a semi permeable membrane. The main objective of the present study was to work on different exoelectrogen and electrodes that could be more efficient and could be more efficient and could be cheaper than the existing ones. A small work on bio cathode was also done,biocathode is simply using organisms as cathode. Caulobactercrescentus and Proteus vulgaris were the organisms used(exoelectrogens). Aluminium (as anode), copper (as cathode) and graphite were the different electrodes used. Nutrient agar seeded with Bacillus subtilis is used as a PEM in a double chambered Microbial Fuel Cell designed and fabricated in house. Our main parameter is to check the power generation of the system. The catholyte used was 0.3% KMnO4. S.elongatus and Synechocysts species were used as bio-cathodes. The system showed good power generation for about 10-15 days. Not only the power but also the external resistance was calculated.