title: Evaluation of Laminaria-based microbial fuel cells (LbMs) for electricity production.
abstract: Marine algae represents a sustainable feedstock in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) due to its low water and energy requirements for cultivation, higher capacity to sequester carbondioxide, and high carbohydrate content. Two-compartment MFCs were evaluated under batch-fed mode using Laminaria saccharina as the model for algae-based electron donor, and mixed microbial consortia as the biocatalyst, in the anode compartment. The Laminaria-based MFCs (LBMs) were studied with three different pretreatment conditions for the L. saccharina: (i) autoclaving (Auto), (ii) microwave irradiation (Micro), and (iii) as received treatment (No-Treat). A control was setup to establish base line performance for two-compartment MFCs using glucose as the electron donor in the anode. The performance of LBMs (250 mW/m(2) and 900 mA/m(2)) was on par with glucose-based MFCs. AC impedance analysis revealed that the charge transfer resistance was at least 50-fold higher than the corresponding ohmic losses in both LBMs and glucose-based MFCs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA. gadhav@rpi.edu
authors.forename: Venkataramana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gadhamshetty
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Belanger
authors.forename: Carly-Jeanne
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Gardiner
authors.forename: Anasha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hynes
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004566:Electrodes / Q000382:microbiology; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D007795:Laminaria / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005947:Glucose