Enhancement of Power Output by using Alginate Immobilized Algae in Biophotovoltaic Devices

Fong-Lee Ng; Siew-Moi Phang; Vengadesh Periasamy; Kamran Yunus; Adrian C Fisher

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-16530-y

Enhancement of Power Output by using Alginate Immobilized Algae in Biophotovoltaic Devices

Sci Rep. 2017 Nov 24;7(1):16237. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-16530-y.

Authors

Fong-Lee Ng¹, Siew-Moi Phang^{2

3}, Vengadesh Periasamy⁴, Kamran Yunus⁵, Adrian C Fisher⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. fonglee_ng@yahoo.com.
² Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. phang@um.edu.my.
³ Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. phang@um.edu.my.
⁴ Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre (LDMRC), Department of Physics, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Philipa Fawcett Drive, CB3 0AS, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Abstract

We report for the first time a photosynthetically active algae immobilized in alginate gel within a fuel cell design for generation of bioelectricity. The algal-alginate biofilm was utilized within a biophotovoltaics (BPV) device developed for direct bioelectricity generation from photosynthesis. A peak power output of 0.289 mWm^-2 with an increase of 18% in power output compared to conventional suspension culture BPV device was observed. The increase in maximum power density was correlated to the maximum relative electron transport rate (rETRm). The semi-dry type of photosynthetically active biofilm proposed in this work may offer significantly improved performances in terms of fuel cell design, bioelectricity generation, oxygen production and CO₂ reduction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't