Biofuel Cells

Microbial fuel cells are fuel cells powered by bacterial fermentation. There are many types of microbial fuel cells, but on this site we focus on ocean microbial fuel cells. Top scientists in the field are reseaching surface area and electrode material. These fuel cells use 80 percent of the electrons the bacteria, but still only produce about 0.77 volts of electricity. Dr.Clare Reimers is currently working on getting bacteria from the upper water column to produce electricity. This is all experimental technology, and has miles to go before it will be used by the public.

So far we've done two experiments in attempt to find the best electrode material for a microbial fuel cell. In our preliminary experiment we tested our different metals, bronze/silicon alloy, silver, steel, stainless steel, brass, copper, aluminum, and graphite, for bacterial attachment. We had hypothesised that since reseachers use graphite for their electrodes, it would grow the most bacteria. Read more about our preliminary investigations in our bacterial attachment section.

We're planning to run more tests with our microbial fuel cells. So far the most energy we've gotten was 0.4 volts. There is so far this technology can take us, we want to continue finding ways to get the most power possible! We're going to test the difference in current production between one and two chambered fuel cells.