Numerical Investigation of Double Chamber Acetate-Fed Microbial Fuel Cell in Unsteady-State Condition

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are devices that utilize the work of microorganisms to oxidize organic substrate involving biochemical pathways. Several studies have been done based on experiments while simulation and modelling remain unexplored. Basically, MFCs have a lot of similarities to chemical fuel cell systems, which modelling and simulation have been widely developed. Hence, a study should be done to develop the model in order to widen the implementation of MFCs. In order to evaluate MFCs performance with less cost and time, numerical modelling might be an effective approach. Models could also be easily developed or modified for various operation conditions and configurations to generate experimental data on MFCs. A number of papers on simulation and modelling focused on cell voltage as function of both cell current density and chemicals concentration. In this paper, a double chamber acetate MFCs under continuous operation and unsteady state condition would be investigated. MFCs model based are developed by calculating biochemical reactions, Butler-Volmer equation, and electrochemical equations using MATLAB 2018a software. The parameters and constants data reported from recent literature are used. Results show that periodic flow rate of fuel could improve the power production. This result also gives the prediction of cell voltage and current density. Nevertheless, models with various conditions or configurations could be developed to scale-up or create more efficient MFCs using simple methods. (paper)