A Microfluidic Reactor for Energy Applications

Luke T. Wagner, Jie Yang, Sasan Ghobadian, Reza Montazami, Nastaran Hashemi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ojab.2012.13003                

Abstract

Miniature microbial fuel cells have recently drawn lots of attention as portable power generation devices due to their short startup time and environmentally-friendly process which could be used for powering small integrated biosensors. We designed and fabricated a microbial fuel cell in a microfluidic platform. The device was made in polydimethylsiloxane with a volume of 4 μL and consisted of two carbon cloth electrodes and proton exchange membrane. Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1 was chosen to be the electrogenic bacterial strain and inoculated into the anode chamber. Ferricyanide was used as the catholyte and pumped into the cathode chamber at a constant flow rate during the experiment. The mi- niature microbial fuel cell generated a maximum current of 2.59 μA and had a significantly short startup time.

Keywords

Microfluidic; Microbial Fuel Cell; Renewable Energy; Biochemical Process

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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