Effect of culture time on the growth curve and power performance in a microbial fuel cell at a fixed amount of liquid culture

The microbial fuel cell uses the microorganism biochemistry to carry on the energy conversion. Concerning the experimental precision, the colony culture would be replaced by a fixed amount of liquid culture for Microbial fuel cell of Escherichia coli. The anode and cathode chambers whose each volume is 100 mL were utilized, the effective surface area of proton exchange membrane Nafion-117 is about 9 cm². In addition, the electrode area of carbon cloth is 20 cm². Three kinds of Escherichia coli, named as BCRC No. 10322, 10675 and 51534, respectively, would be selected. Results show that the electricity performance of Escherichia coli of BCRC No.51534 is better than the other microorganism studied because of having a larger open circuit voltage of 1.01 V and limiting current 22 mA, the maximum power density of 1342 mW/m^2, and average working power density of 295 mW/m² would be produced. These results would be useful to improve the performance of microbial fuel cell.