Biophotovoltaic devices (BPVs), which use photosynthetic organisms as active materials to harvest light, have a range of attractive features relative to synthetic and non-biological photovoltaics, including their environmentally friendly nature and ability to self-repair. However, efficiencies of BPVs are currently lower than those of synthetic analogues. Here, we demonstrate BPVs delivering anodic power densities of over 0.5 W m⁻², a value five times that for previously described BPVs. We achieved this through the use of cyanobacterial mutants with increased electron export characteristics together with a microscale flow-based design that allowed independent optimization of the charging and power delivery processes, as well as membrane-free operation by exploiting laminar flow to separate the catholyte and anolyte streams. These results suggest that miniaturization of active elements and flow control for decoupled operation and independent optimization of the core processes involved in BPV design are effective strategies for enhancing power output and thus the potential of BPVs as viable systems for sustainable energy generation.

使用光合生物作为活性材料来收集光的生物光伏器件（BPV），相对于合成和非生物光伏器件具有一系列吸引人的特征，包括它们的环境友好性和自我修复能力。但是，BPV的效率目前低于合成类似物的效率。在这里，我们演示了BPV能够提供超过0.5 W m ^-2的阳极功率密度，该值是先前描述的BPV的五倍。我们通过使用具有增加的电子输出特性的蓝细菌突变体以及基于微流的设计来实现这一目标，该设计允许独立优化充电和功率传输过程，并通过利用层流分离阴极电解液和分离膜来实现无膜运行。阳极电解液流。这些结果表明，用于分离操作的有源元件的小型化和流量控制以及BPV设计中涉及的核心过程的独立优化是提高功率输出的有效策略，因此是BPV作为可持续能源生产可行系统的潜力。