Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are the rising modern equipment for the generation of bioelectricity from organic matters. In this study, MFCs in two formats are assembled and concurrently operated for a 30-day period in a batch mode manner. Natural biowaste cattle dung slurry with mediators is used as a substrate persistently for the enhancement of electron transfer rate and additionally for the augmentation of required electrical parameters. Under similar conditions, the MFC setups are experimented with a variety of anode-cathode material combinations, namely carbon-carbon, copper-carbon, and zinc-carbon. The performance of these MFCs during the testing period is evaluated independently and compared by plotting polarization data generated by them. It is revealed that maximum current and power densities are achieved from all these MFCs and the best attained values are 1858 mA/m² and 1465 mW/m², respectively, for the novel single-chamber zinc-carbon electrode MFC. The corresponding findings present that the MFC with zinc-carbon electrodes has the better power density than other MFCs. Being conductive and higher standard potential metal electrodes have improved the capability to act in place of carbon family electrodes for MFC-based power applications. Although the MFC power generation is low, but modifications in configurations, electrodes, microbe-rich biowaste, mediators, and power management may enhance the power output to a significant level for commercialization of this technology. The unique feature of this research is to explore the pertinent use of conductive metal electrodes to enhance the power generation capability of MFCs through biowaste as an alternative power source for small applications. The novelty of this research is presented through usage of conductive metal electrodes for the performance analysis of MFCs.

中文翻译：

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使用微生物燃料电池管理牛粪和新型生物发电：一种巧妙的实验方法

微生物燃料电池 (MFC) 是用于从有机物产生生物电的新兴现代设备。在这项研究中，两种格式的 MFC 以批处理方式组装并同时运行 30 天。含有介体的天然生物废物牛粪浆被持续用作底物，以提高电子转移率，并增加所需的电参数。在类似的条件下，MFC 设置用各种阳极-阴极材料组合进行试验，即碳-碳、铜-碳和锌-碳。这些 MFC 在测试期间的性能是独立评估的，并通过绘制它们生成的极化数据进行比较。²和 1465 mW/m ²分别用于新型单室锌碳电极 MFC。相应的研究结果表明，带有锌碳电极的 MFC 比其他 MFC 具有更好的功率密度。具有导电性和更高标准电位的金属电极提高了在基于 MFC 的电源应用中代替碳族电极的能力。尽管 MFC 发电量较低，但在配置、电极、富含微生物的生物废物、介质和电源管理方面的改进可能会将功率输出提高到显着水平，以实现该技术的商业化。这项研究的独特之处在于探索导电金属电极的相关用途，以通过生物废物作为小型应用的替代电源来提高 MFC 的发电能力。