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Fabrication of Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell (SMFC) Using Soil as a Substrate

Siti Kudnie Sahari, Mohd. Zulhilmi Firdaus Rosli, Amir Maina Butit, Kuryati Kipli, Martin Anyi, Asmahani Awang, Marini Sawawi, Mohamad Rusop Mahmood, Lilik Hasanah, Abdul Rahman Kram, Zaidi Embong and Hafsah Nahrawi

Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology, Volume 30, Issue 2, April 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47836/pjst.30.2.14

Keywords: Activated carbon, copper, DC-DC boost converter, graphite, soil microbial fuel cell (SMFC), zinc

Published on: 1 April 2022

This paper presents a Single-chamber Microbial Fuel Cell (SMFC) design by utilizing soil as a substrate with two sets of electrode combinations, which are graphite-activated carbon and copper-zinc of different sizes. It was found that graphite and activated carbon produced greater power density compared to copper and zinc. Moreover, it was observed that the graphite-activated carbon cloth electrode with a bigger surface area of 51cm2, resulted in a higher power density of 904mW/m2. To further improve the voltage production of this model, four SMFCs were stacked in series and connected to a DC-DC boost converter to increase the voltage to 1.482 V for the copper-zinc electrode and 1.722 V for the graphite-activated carbon electrode, respectively, which was sufficient to light up an LED light.

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ISSN 0128-7680

e-ISSN 2231-8526

Article ID

JST-3243-2021

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