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Write a 1250 words paper on the topic Production of Electricity using Microbial Fuel Cells

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Write a 1250 words paper on the topic Production of Electricity using Microbial Fuel Cells. The purpose of the experiment will be to popularize the inexpensive MFCs and show if scaled up, they can present a low-price energy source, which will at the same time be used for bioremediation of water resources polluted by effluents.

Microbial fuel cells work on the principle that some microorganisms produce electricity while metabolizing wastewater for their sustenance. The MFC consists of a semi-permeable, cation exchange membrane that allows ions to pass through them but not the microbes. two electrodes, usually the cathode is made up of platinum and the anode is carbon graphite or carbon cloth. It is fitted by a wire to complete the external circuit (Microbial Fuel Cell, 2008). Wastewater is made to flow through the anaerobic compartment and the bacterial metabolic action on the wastewater allows electrons to become free and the cell starts conducting electricity.

The hypothesis is that some strains of bacteria exhibit greater coulombic efficiencies than others, depending on the substrates and their own metabolic pathways. The bacteria that the project will deal with are Shewanella oneidensis, Pseudomonas sp., Clostridium acetobutylicum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Escherichia coli.

Microbial fuel cell, microbial strains of Shewanella oneidensis, Pseudomonas sp., Clostridium acetobutylicum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Escherichia coli, growth medium for the microbes, synthetic wastewater solution.

The MFC provided by the lab is a single- chamber, with Platinum, coated graphite cathode, and graphite rod for the anode. The cation exchange membrane allows only the protons formed in the anode chamber to move across it and combine with electrons traveling via the external circuit, and oxygen to form water.

The experiment requires the bacterial inoculum to be introduced in the synthetic wastewater sample, along with specific preferred substrates like starch, glucose, sucrose, lactate, and molasses in moderate quantities to facilitate bacterial growth. The next step would include monitoring the power output of each bacterial strain after incubating the mixture for 24 hours. The purpose of the experiment is to screen for bacteria that are more adept at producing electricity from wastewater by comparing their power densities.