Employment of osmotic pump as a novel feeding system to operate the laminar-flow microfluidic microbial fuel cell

Thanh Ngoc-Dan Cao; Chao-Chin Chang; Hussnain Mukhtar; Qian Sun; Yan Li; Chang-Ping Yu

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2022.114347

Employment of osmotic pump as a novel feeding system to operate the laminar-flow microfluidic microbial fuel cell

Environ Res. 2022 Dec;215(Pt 3):114347. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114347. Epub 2022 Sep 15.

Authors

Thanh Ngoc-Dan Cao¹, Chao-Chin Chang¹, Hussnain Mukhtar², Qian Sun³, Yan Li⁴, Chang-Ping Yu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
² Departments of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China.
⁴ School of Ecological Environment and Urban Construction, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350118, China.
⁵ Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan. Electronic address: cpyu@ntu.edu.tw.

PMID: 36116490
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114347

Abstract

Laminar-flow microfluidic microbial fuel cell (LMMFC) has attracted attention due to the advantage of the liquid-liquid interface between anolyte and catholyte without the use of membrane as a separator resulting in less fabrication cost. Unlike previous studies of LMMFC using syringe pumps, this study proposes the use of osmotic pumps to feed anolyte and catholyte in the microchannel without any additional power supply. The osmotic pump was constructed with two cylindrical chambers separated by a forward osmosis membrane, with the initial draw solution concentration of 90 g l^-1 NaCl. We have, for the first time, demonstrated using the osmotic pumps to deliver both anolyte and catholyte and create co-laminar flow in LMMFC. Under the catholyte and anolyte flow rates of 18 ml/h and 40 ml/h respectively, LMMFC cultivated with Shewanella oneidensis produced the maximum power density of 87 mW m^-2 and current density of 747 mA m^-2 with the internal resistance of 1660 Ω. Further studies are warranted to develop osmotic pumps-fed LMMFC into a potential platform for portable biosensors.

Keywords: Co-laminar flow microfluidic microbial fuel cell; Osmotic pump; Pseudomonas citronellolis; Pseudomonas delhiensis; Shewanella oneidensis.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Bioelectric Energy Sources*
Employment
Microfluidics
Osmosis
Sodium Chloride

Substances

Sodium Chloride