title: Temperature and Humidity Sensor Powered by an Individual Microbial Fuel Cell in a Power Management System.
abstract: Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are of increasing interest as bioelectrochemical systems for decomposing organic materials and converting chemical energy into electricity. The main challenge for this technology is that the low power and voltage of the devices restricts the use of MFCs in practical applications. In this paper, a power management system (PMS) is developed to store the energy and export an increased voltage. The designed PMS successfully increases the low voltage generated by an individual MFC to a high potential of 5 V, capable of driving a wireless temperature and humidity sensor based on nRF24L01 data transmission modules. With the PMS, MFCs can intermittently power the sensor for data transmission to a remote receiver. It is concluded that even an individual MFC can supply the energy required to power the sensor and telemetry system with the designed PMS. The presented PMS can be widely used for unmanned environmental monitoring such as wild rivers, lakes, and adjacent water areas, and offers promise for further advances in MFC technology.
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China. mbzq@163.com.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China. ydrxbqxl@163.com.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China. mobing@hqu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China. lwh@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 361021, Korea. skkim@korea.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Suki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China. hitwzy@126.com.
authors.forename: Zhenyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006813:Humidity; D013686:Telemetry / Q000379:methods*; D013696:Temperature
keywords: DC-DC; boost converter; charge pump; microbial fuel cells (MFCs); microcontroller unit (MCU); power management system (PMS); sensors