The Characteristics of Dry Purple Photosynthetic Biofilm Used in Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract

 Abstract —Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a bioenergy source that can convert chemical energy into electrical energy using microorganisms. The inconvenient startup process is one of the main disadvantages of MFC technology. To improve this issue, the usability of dry purple photosynthetic bacteria (PPB) biofilm as the biocatalyst in an MFC was investigated in this study. This MFC composed of three parts: a paper-based membrane, an anode electrode with dry PPB biofilm, and a cathode electrode coated potassium ferricyanide. The dry PPB biofilm on the anode can be activated by adding water and generating on-demand electricity from photosynthetic activity. We measured the discharging voltage generated by the anodes stored for up to 8 weeks. The maximum power density of the MFC was 2.90 μW/cm 2 obtained at 24.1 μA/cm 2 current