The Correlation Of The Anodic And Cathodic Open Circuit Potential (OCP) And Power Generation In Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs)

The overall open circuit potential (OCP) and short circuit potential of anodes and cathodes and the power generation in air-cathode membraneless single chamber microbial fuel cells (SCMFCs) were investigated in this study. Two SCMFCs with different anode areas (10 and 40 cm2) were tested in 8 weeks of experiments. At the beginning of the tests, the anodes were well colonized and the cathodes were in a clean condition. Anodic OCPs remained stable throughout the experiments while the cathodic OCPs decreased dramatically in the first week. The overall OCP of SCMFCs followed the cathodic OCP trend. The power generation of SCMFCs dropped dramatically in the first 3 weeks and then remained stable. The short circuit potential trend indicated that the performance of SCMFCs was limited by the cathodic process of oxygen diffusion to the platinum.