title: Bi-directional electrical characterisation of microbial fuel cell.
abstract: The electrical performance of microbial fuel cells in steady-state is usually investigated by standard characterisation methods that reveal many important parameters e.g. maximum power. This paper introduces a novel "bi-directional" method to study how the acquisition parameters (i.e. sweep rate and sweep regime) can influence measurements and consequently performance estimations. The investigation exhibited considerable differences (hysteresis) between the forward and backward characterisation regimes, indicating a difficulty to reach steady-state under certain conditions. Moreover, it is found that fast sweep rates (time-step of 2 min) can lead to an overestimation of the short-circuit currents, while prolonged operation with high external loads leads to maximum power overestimation and extended conditioning at high currents can result in its underestimation.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Laboratoire Ampère, 36 avenue Guy de Collongue, Ecully 69134, France. nicolas.degrenne@ec-lyon.fr
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Degrenne
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ledezma
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bevilacqua
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Buret
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Allard
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greenman
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Ieropoulos
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004735:Energy Transfer; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008962:Models, Theoretical