Purpose

Rationale

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) are fuel cells that use the power of bacterial metabolisms in order to convert chemical into electrical energy. In recent studies about Microbial Fuel Cells there remains a huge question (much speculation) on whether or not the process of converting chemical to electrical energy is done by the bacteria or because of the ions and possibly the acidity of the soil. Also many scientific research on MFCs publish focus on increasing the rate of electron flow through maximizing the effect on a anode while many other focus on just adding substrates in order to increase electrical flow and output. This project involves two foci. One is figuring out whether or not bacterial metabolic activity of metabolizing substrates or the chemical attributes like the ions in the soil tested, the acidity, or the substrates themselves generate the electrical output of a MFC. The second is figuring out whether a single species of bacteria (bacterium) isolated from the MFC can generate more electrical output than other types of isolated bacteria (typically not in the soil) and comparing this data to the data collected about MFCs with different colonies of bacteria.

Main Objectives

Figuring out whether or not bacterial metabolic activity of metabolizing substrates or the chemical attributes like the ions in the soil tested, the acidity, or the substrates themselves with metabolic activity generate the electrical output of a MFC.
Figuring out whether a single species of bacteria (bacterium) isolated from the MFC can generate more electrical output than other types of isolated bacteria (typically not in the soil) and comparing this data to the data collected about MFCs with different colonies of bacteria.

Other Secondary Objectives to this project include:

Seeing if the literature cited is correct in that the Shewanella and Geobacter species is the main cause of the electrical output
Produce a Microbial Fuel Cell that is sustainable, has an easy design, recyclable, and can impact and used in developing countries
Make it feasible to establish a charge quick enough preferably in 1 day in order to light an LED compared to other Microbial Fuel Cell companies that take 5 days to charge. Also, to do this so that the hypothesis can be tested of whether or not bacterial metabolic activity is affecting the electrical output of Microbial Fuel Cells.
Use different subtrates such as peptone and glucose to see if it stimulates the increased metabolic activity in bacteria in order to increase electrical output
Provide feasible ways to implement this to the world! (more towards the future).