Rainwater-driven microbial fuel cells for power generation in remote areas

• Published in: Royal Society open science Vol. 8; no. 11; p. 210996
• Main Authors: Amen, Mohamed Taha, Yasin, Ahmed S, Hegazy, Mohamed I, Jamal, Mohammad Abu Hena Mostafa, Hong, Seong-Tshool, Barakat, Nasser A M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society 01-11-2021
• Subjects: Ecology, Conservation and Global Change Biology; microbial fuel cell; power generation; rainwater; remote area sensor; microbial fuel cell; power generation; rainwater; remote area sensor
• ISSN: 2054-5703; 2054-5703
• DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210996

The possibility of using rainwater as a sustainable anolyte in an air-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) is investigated in this study. The results indicate that the proposed MFC can work within a wide temperature range (from 0 to 30°C) and under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. However, the rainwater season has a distinct impact. Under anaerobic conditions, the summer rainwater achieves a promised open circuit potential (OCP) of 553 ± 2 mV without addition of nutrients at the ambient temperature, while addition of nutrients leads to an increase in the cell voltage to 763 ± 3 and 588 ± 2 mV at 30°C and ambient temperature, respectively. The maximum OCP for the winter rainwater (492 ± 1.5 mV) is obtained when the reactor is exposed to the air (aerobic conditions) at ambient temperature. Furthermore, the winter rainwater MFC generates a maximum power output of 7 ± 0.1 mWm
at a corresponding current density value of 44 ± 0.7 mAm
at 30°C. While, at the ambient temperature, the maximum output power is obtained with the summer rainwater (7.2 ± 0.1 mWm
at 26 ± 0.5 mAm
). Moreover, investigation of the bacterial diversity indicates that
spp. is the dominant electroactive genus in the summer rainwater, while in the winter rainwater,
spp. is the main electroactive bacteria. The cyclic voltammetry analysis confirms that the electrons are delivered directly from the bacterial biofilm to the anode surface and without mediators. Overall, this study opens a new avenue for using a novel sustainable type of MFC derived from rainwater.