Natagarn Tongphanpharn, Chung‐Yu Guan, Wei‐Shan Chen et al.

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy • 2021

T. E. Kuleshova, A.G. Ivanova, Alexander Galushko et al.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy • 2022

Maria Doglioni, Matteo Nardello, Davide Brunelli

IEEE Transactions on AgriFood Electronics • 2024

Smart sensors used for intensive crop monitoring require minimal maintenance and should prioritize ecological sustainability. Consequently, battery-free energy harvesting represents a key aspect of sustainable development in smart agriculture. Plant microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) introduce a cutting-edge renewable energy source that scavenges energy from the symbiotic relationship between a plant and electron-generating bacteria in the soil, potentially supplying power as long as the plant lives. Characterizing PMFCs' power production is challenging, as it depends on many factors, such as soil impedance and plant condition. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is often used in laboratory tests, but it is inefficient to deploy in off-grid contexts. This article introduces an ultralow power EIS biosensor architecture that utilizes PMFCs as an energy source and for the EIS measure. We prove that ultralow-power EIS is compatible with PMFCs' mW-level power production through an implementation that integrates an EIS analog frontend and PMFC-tailored harvesting electronics. The architecture also facilitates PMFC unloading periods, crucial for PMFC recovery and durability. Experimental results show that a full-range EIS sweep (21.3 mHz–21.8 kHz, 19 points) executed with the proposed architecture requires only 3.64 J. We highlight the potential of cost-effective, self-powered EIS in assisting PMFCs' development into reliable energy sources for battery-free nodes. We also demonstrate that plant state, as well as maximum power point could be monitored through ultralow power EIS measurements.

Shentan Liu, Zuo Wang, Xiaojuan Feng et al.

Environmental Research • 2022

J.C. Gómora-Hernández, Instituto Tecnológico de Toluca, Jorge Serment-Guerrero et al.

Revista Mexicana de Ingeniería Química • 2019

Due to the existing energetic demand worldwide the search for alternative energy sources is necessary. Bioenergy has been studied in the last decades as a promising energy source and the use of bioelectrochemical devices has become important. In this paper the plant Agapanthus africanus L. Hoffman’s was used to evaluate both growing and voltage generation in an electrochemical device adapted at the root system of the plant. For this, Agapanthus was planted either with or without compost and varying the position of the anode. Growth and voltage generation was monitored throughout all the experiments. All plants showed a satisfactory growth, and the carbon fiber anode position affect neither the vitality of the plant nor the system performance, moreover, the addition of compost (33%v) increased the generated voltage reaching a maximum value of 690 mV. Experimental data indicate a great potential of Agapanthus africanus to generate voltage in a green and sustainable way. Energy obtained from plant-microbial fuel cell can be used to power on low consumption electronics using an electronic device composed by 1.2 V batteries.

Natagarn Tongphanpharn, Chih-Huang Chou, Chung‐Yu Guan et al.

Environmental Technology & Innovation • 2021

Plant microbial fuel cell (PMFC) is an emerging biotechnological device that integrates plants and microorganisms to convert chemical energy into electrical energy. In this study, we focused on the performance of PMFCs to remediate Cd(II)-contaminated soil. The wetland plants, cattail (Typha orientalis), and wild rice (Oryza rufipogon) were utilized in PMFCs to compare the effects of different plants under closed and open-circuit during 150 days. The cattail PMFCs and wild rice PMFCs under 20 mg/kg Cd(II) achieved the maximum voltage at 137.12 mV ± 13.08 and 350.50 ± 74.89 mV, respectively. For the Cd remediation, the cattail PMFCs and wild rice PMFCs could achieve 30.2% and 22.8% of Cd removal in the soil, respectively, and wild rice PMFCs with 5% chestnut biochar showed the highest Cd removal in the soil (31.7 %). The application of PMFCs for Cd(II) remediation could lead to the removal of metals in contaminated soil via bioelectrochemical processes and plant uptake. The Cd uptake by both cattail and wild rice was mainly accumulated in roots, reaching concentrations of 67.29 mg/kg and 16.49 mg/kg, and bioconcentration factors of 5.02 and 1.17, respectively. Furthermore, we observed that PMFCs enhanced immobilization of Cd contamination and reduced bioavailability in soil. Additionally, the microbial community analysis showed Proteobacteria including genera Anaeromyxobacter, Geobacter, Phenylobacterium, and Azospirillum were dominant at the anode region. Overall, this study has demonstrated that PMFC systems can be a promising technology for the treatment of soil contamination with Cd(II).

Chung‐Yu Guan, Season S. Chen, Tzong‐Huei Lee et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production • 2020

T. E. Kuleshova, N. R. Gall, Alexander Galushko et al.

Technical Physics • 2021

The electrogenic properties of plant–microbial fuel cells (P-MFCs) assembled into a battery are studied. The operation of a single cell is studied experimentally in comparison with parallel and series connections of cells, which are two options for connection in an electrical circuit. A potential difference of ~70 mV, which gradually vanishes, is registered in a P-MFC that does not include a plant organism. We hypothesize that the root system, with involvement of electrogenic chemoorganotrophic microorganisms, gives rise to diffusional electromotive force. We show that in series connection of three fuel cells the bioelectric potential generated by an individual cell, which is 170 mV, increases only by a factor of 1.5. In parallel connection of three cells, the current produced under a load increases, but also only by a factor of 1.5, and this takes place at later developmental stages of the plants, which is presumably caused by triggering certain compensatory mechanisms that diminish the electrogenic properties of the plants.

Samuel Raj Babu Arulmani, Helan Leuca Gnanamuthu, Sabariswaran Kandasamy et al.

Process Biochemistry • 2021

Boneng Chen, Weiling Cai, Ankit Garg

Acta Geotechnica • 2023

Rajeev Piyare, Amy L. Murphy, Pietro Tosato et al.

2017 IEEE 42nd Conference on Local Computer Networks Workshops (LCN Workshops) • 2017

As a step toward sustainable wireless sensing, we present a proof of concept system that uses a Plant Microbial Fuel Cells (PMFC) as a power source. To match the very low power production capabilities of the PMFC, we couple it with an ultra-low power wake-up receiver used as a trigger for sampling and transmission of the sensed value. We demonstrate that this combination, with a new, receiver initiated MAC-level communication protocol, results in a sustainable system for reasonable data rates, shown to be 30s in our laboratory setting. This work offers the first steps toward large-scale wireless sensor networks in applications where the sensors are surrounded by living plants that can provide a green and perpetual power supply.

Iryna Rusyn, Oleksandr Medvediev, Bohdan Tarasovych Valko

International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology • 2021

Maurizio Rossi, Pietro Tosato, Luca Gemma et al.

Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE), 2017 • 2017

Going low power and having a low or neutral impact on the environment is key for embedded systems, as pervasive and wearable consumer electronics is growing. In this paper, we present a self-sustaining, ultra-low power device, supplied by a Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell (PMFC) and capable of smart sensing and long-range communication. The use of a PMFC as a power source is challenging but has many advantages like the only requirement of watering the plant. The system uses aggressive power management thanks to FRAM technology exploited to retain microcontroller status and to shutdown electronics without losing context information. Experimental results show that the proposed system paves the way to energy neutral sensors powered by biosystems available almost anywhere on Earth.

Thessa Van Limbergen, Robin Bonné, Jeroen Hustings et al.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews • 2022

T. E. Kuleshova, Ankit Rao, Sudipa Bhadra et al.

Biomass and Bioenergy • 2022

Valeria Ancona, Cristina Cavone, Paola Grenni et al.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy • 2024

Plant Microbial Fuel Cells (PMFCs) are bioelectrochemical systems able to convert solar energy into bioelectricity with the support of rhizosphere microbial populations. The simultaneous bioelectricity and biomass production makes PMFCs an interesting nature-based solution for promoting not only energy production, but also soil decontamination. This review reports the main bacterial groups involved in microbial fuel cell systems and key factors influencing their performances in plant presence. In detail, to implement PMFCs for remediation of contaminated soils, it is firstly necessary to know chemical characteristics of pollutants, their concentrations, soil physico-chemical characteristics and soil microbial community structure and functioning. Then, based on characterization data of the contaminated soil, a plant species able to resist pollutant toxicity and promote soil phytoremediation processes (e.g. phyto-extraction, phyto-stabilization, phyto-degradation) can be selected, also based on the climatic characteristics of the study area. Finally, electrode materials and their configurations need to be designed to ensure an efficient plant growth, adequate electron transfer and the best possible generation of bioelectricity and at the same time promoting the degradative activity of microorganisms.

Chung‐Yu Guan, Anyi Hu, Chang‐Ping Yu

The Science of The Total Environment • 2019

Jauharah Md Khudzari, Jiby Kurian, Yvan Gariépy et al.

Biomass and Bioenergy • 2017

Mohamedjaffer Gulamhussein, D.G. Randall

Journal of Water Process Engineering • 2020

Roshan Regmi, Rachnarin Nitisoravut, Sirada Charoenroongtavee et al.

CLEAN - Soil Air Water • 2018

Novel earthen pot–plant microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) are constructed as a wastewater filtering and microelectrical power system. Its performance is investigated at different influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) strengths of 50 mg L −1 (P‐COD50), 250 mg L −1 (P‐COD250), and 500 mg L −1 (P‐COD500). Two reference reactors, one unplanted with 250 mg L −1 (UP‐COD250) and another planted with tap water devoid of external supply of organic (P‐COD0), are constructed to show the effects of plants in treatment ability and electricity generation. Maximum average current density is achieved in P‐COD250, that is, 242 ± 10.5 mA m −2 followed by UP‐COD250, P‐COD50, P‐COD500, and P‐COD0. Polarization curves also depicts a similar order for power density. Variations of power output in low and high concentrated units are accompanied with lower substrates for bacteria in the former while the latter is due to osmotic shock of plants at higher COD concentration. At the same influent concentration, planted reactors enhances current density by 12.5%. Organic removal ability is promising in all the reactors, reaching almost 99%. However, plants enhanced, on average, 3% in COD removal. High COD removal is achieved with higher retention time. Planted reactors shows more significant increments in current during daytime after feeding than unplanted reactors, suggesting the role of root exudates via photosynthates in current generation. These results can help in further optimizing of PMFCs in terms of configuration and substrates.

Chung‐Yu Guan, Chang‐Ping Yu

The Science of The Total Environment • 2020

Plant microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) is a sustainable technology that can convert sunlight to electricity through the integration of plants, microorganism and electrode systems. Urban greening, such as green roofs, is considered as one of the measures to resolve the urban heat island effect caused by the increasing urbanization. In this study, PMFCs were installed as green roofs in a subtropical metropolis. During the operation, the biomass of Chinese pennisetum, Dwarf rotala, and Narrowleaf cattail increased from spring to summer. Furthermore, the maximum daily average output voltage of Chinese pennisetum and Narrowleaf cattail PMFCs was 667.94 ± 128.65 mV in March and 451.12 ± 94.37 mV in June, respectively. For no plant conditions, the maximum daily average output voltage of soil MFCs was 243.70 ± 128.93 mV in March and 100.16 ± 23.43 mV in June. However, little output voltage of Dwarf rotala PMFCs indicated different plant species in PMFC systems would result in varied efficiencies of electricity generation. The trends of electricity generation in Chinese pennisetum and Narrowleaf cattail PMFCs were influenced by net solar radiation and air temperature, respectively according to the results of correlation analysis. The PMFCs based green roofs could lower the temperature of underneath floor slabs as many as 24.81 °C and 29.37 °C compared with bare slabs at noon in March and June. Vegetation of the PMFCs could relieve soil heat flux, and simulated results showed Chinese pennisetum PMFCs with higher vegetation had lower U-value for energy savings of air conditioning. Microbial community analysis showed Geobacter was among the dominant genera and had higher relative abundance in anode soils than cathode soils in Chinese pennisetum and Narrowleaf cattail PMFCs, which generated higher output voltage. Our roof-top research demonstrated that using PMFCs based green roofs for urban greening is promising and warrants the potential for future application.

Pratiksha Srivastava, Supriya Gupta, Vikram Garaniya et al.

Environmental Chemistry Letters • 2018

Tanveer Saeed, Nehreen Majed, Asheesh Kumar Yadav et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2021

A. Carmalin Sophia, S. Sreeja

Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments • 2017

Pranab Jyoti Sarma, Kaustubha Mohanty

Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering • 2018

Kiran Kumar, Man mohan K., Sreelakshmi P. Manangath et al.

Process Biochemistry • 2020

Natalia Tapia, Claudia Rojas, Carlos A. Bonilla et al.

Ecological Engineering • 2017

Pragya Narayana Prasad, Sarita Kalla

Process Biochemistry • 2021

Davide Brunelli, Pietro Tosato, Maurizio Rossi

Procedia Engineering • 2016

We propose a self-sustainable wireless sensor node capable to monitor both environmental data and flora health state, exploiting a Microbial Fuel Cell combined with a plant. This bio-electrochemical system is used both as a power generator to supply the wireless embedded electronics and as a biosensor for estimating the status of the plant. We demonstrate that the sub-milliwatt power provided by the fuel cell is enough for achieving an energy-neutral smart sensor that samples and sends data. Moreover, the rate of the harvested power is correlated with the health of the flora living in symbiosis with the bacteria colony. The proposed system has been conceived to address the needs of future smart agriculture applications, providing an unobtrusive and energy neutral monitoring system open to a broad range of applications, thanks to the bacteria species that populate almost any soil on Earth.

Rukhsar Shaikh, Afshan Rizvi, Marzuqa Quraishi et al.

South African Journal of Botany • 2020

Recycling of organic waste is not only vital to emerging countries but developed countries too. Presently, a worldwide energy catastrophe is being noticed because of colossal energy requests and constrained capital. Non-sustainable energy sources are draining, and sustainable energy sources are not appropriately being used. There is a prompt backup course of action quest for energy generation. Microbial fuel cells (MFC) innovation, which utilizes micro-organisms to convert the synthetic energy of organic compounds into power, is viewed as a potential alternative option. A promising adaptation of MFC is a plant microbial fuel cell (P-MFC) that implements adistinctive plant-microorganism rhizospheric relationship to transform solar energy into bioelectricity. P-MFC technology is a holistic approach involving various interrelated fields. The system comprises of two structure types; biocontrol and bioprocess structures. Up to 70% of organic matter produced by plants during photosynthesis winds up in the soil as dead root material. The micro-organisms on and around the surface of the roots oxidize these carbon-based exudates, discharge CO2, protons, and electrons. The rhizodeposition at the soil alliance combined with productive designing drives this rhizospheric relationship and eventually contributes towards genuine applications. Thus, this review emphasizes majorly on three criteria; Components and building viewpoints engaged with structuring an effective setup, the efficiency of P-MFC in power generation, and lastly the sustainability of P-MFC.

Lin Zhao, Jinghui Deng, Huijie Hou et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production • 2019

Jauharah Md Khudzari, Yvan Gariépy, Jiby Kurian et al.

Biochemical Engineering Journal • 2018

Chung‐Yu Guan, Yi-Ho Tseng, Daniel C.W. Tsang et al.

Journal of Hazardous Materials • 2018

Rachnarin Nitisoravut, Roshan Regmi

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews • 2017

Vinícius Fabiano dos Passos, Rafaella Marcílio, Sidney Aquino-Neto et al.

Bioresource Technology • 2019

Bassem Mansour, Hajar Naser Nasser, Hussein Juniedi

2021 12th International Renewable Engineering Conference (IREC) • 2021

The Sediment Microbial Fuel Cell (SMFC) has been studied in terms of electrical power generation, and water treatment. The study aimed to design and test a Sediment Microbial Fuel Cell (SMFC) and for electrical power generation and water treatment. The sediment has been obtained from Al-Sonobar River bed. It has been characterized to determine the organic matter content and nutrients. The cell has been equipped with a surface aeration system. The electrical current and water pollution indicators have been observed and recorded over time for two-mode aeration systems. Results of the first mode showed that the greatest value for Short Circuit Current (I SC ) was (0.905) mA while the greatest value for Open Circuit Voltage (V OC ) was (0.390) V. While a rise in current and voltage values has been observed in the second mode of aeration, in which the greatest value of Short Circuit Current was (1.240) mA, and the greatest value of Open Circuit Voltage (0.430) V. When the circuit has been connected to an external resistance (R=100) Ω, the values for the current, voltage, current density and power density were (0.805) mA, (0.084) V, (3.18) mA/m 2 , and (0.269) mW/m 2 , respectively. For water analysis, an increase in pH values of (8.90) was observed. The efficiency of removing Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), phosphates, nitrates and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) has also increased, reaching: 72.11%, 62.70%, 35.60%, 30.61%, respectively.

Hossein Deris Abdollahpoor, Mostafa Rahimnejad, Mehrdad Mashkour et al.

Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers • 2024

Yongyan Niu, Khan Aman, Zhengjun Chen et al.

Applied Environmental Biotechnology • 2019

In this study, a sediment microbial fuel cell (SMFC) system for the simultaneous biodegradation of organic matter and detoxification of hexavalent chromium Cr (VI) was investigated. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal rate of the SMFC with Cr (VI) was 30.07%, which was significantly higher than that in a SMFC without Cr (VI) (13.74%). In the SMFC with Cr (VI), the maximum values of open-circuit voltage (OCV) and power density were 408 mV and 4.8 mW/m 2 , respectively. During the long-term operation of the SMFC with Cr (VI), 25 mg/L of Cr (VI) were completely reduced from all four consecutive batches over 48 days. MiSeq sequencing revealed that the biofilm microbial community of the anode comprised of Bacteroidetes (42.9%), Proteobacteria (33.6%), Chloroflexi (7.5%), and Euryarchaeota (7.5%) as the predominant phyla. Compared with that of the sediment, certain families were enriched; they included Pseudomonadaceae (46.88-fold), Flavobacteriaceae (5.05-fold), and Syntrophaceae (4.48-fold), which are organic matter-degrading bacteria. These results suggest that SMFCs are useful for TOC removal and detoxification of heavy metals in remediation of contaminated lakes.

Lei Hou, Xuerong Zai, Yao Meng et al.

Journal of Ocean University of China • 2025

Ali Fazeli, Mahdi Mashkour, Hossein Yousefi et al.

Materials Chemistry and Physics • 2025