Constitution and Optimization on the Performance of Microbial Fuel Cell Based on Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria

A mediator-less double-chamber microbial fuel cell was constituted by sulfate-reducing bacteria for the first time, using the Sodium lactate as the substrate (carbon source) and adding a fixed resistor resistance. Taking output voltage and output power density as evaluation indexes, the power generation performances of four anodic materials including copper, aluminum, carbon cloth and carbon particles were compared. Affecting factors of microbial fuel cell performance such as the operation temperature, the electrode spacing and the solution ionic strength were investigated and optimized in this study. Sulfate-reducing bacteria were domesticated intermittently. The results showed that microbial fuel cell had the best performance of electricity generation when the anodic material was carbon cloth; the cathodic material was copper; the operation temperature was 25 degrees C; the electrode spacing was 2 cm; the solution ionic strength was 7 g/L and the external resistor resistance was 1000 Omega. The maximum output voltage could be up to 0.8 V, and the maximum output power density could be 711.1 mWm-2 when the 5th online domestication period was finished. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of International Materials Science Society.