Bioprocess/Chemical Engineering Innovation & Excellence Award 2013 S S!AI"AB#E !

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Entr+ *eadline, 20 "ovem-er 2013 .(ednesda+/0 1 pm

23dges will -e loo4ing 5or evidence o5, %riginalit+ Innovation Evidence o5 potential or achieved technical and/or -3siness s3ccess Impact on environment (ider application

UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

Entr+ 6orm

TITLE OF PROPOSED RESEARCH:

(5 marks)

MICROBIAL FUEL CELLS AS A NEW SOURCE OF ENERGY

B
B(i)

DETAILS OF RESEARCHER
Name of Proje ! Lea"er: VICTOR TONG YONG SERN

(4 marks)
S!#"e$! ID N#m%er: 1102095

B(ii)

Fa #&!' (S )oo&(Ce$!re(*$i! (P&ease +ro,i"e f#&& a""ress): FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN UTAR COMPLEX !ALAN GENTING KLANG 5""00 SETAPAK KUALA LUMPUR CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DIVISION

B(iii)

E-mai& A""ress: #$%&'(&)*%$)+,(-./$+

C
C(i)

RESEARCH INFOR.ATION
Lo a!io$ of Resear ): (/ mark)

UNIVERISTY TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN KUALA LUMPUR CAMPUS

C(ii)

D#ra!io$ of !)is resear ) (.a0im#m 12 mo$!)s): D#ra!io$: 9 +$&)%0 From To : !,&1,23 2014 : S56)5+752 2014

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C(iii)

O!)er Resear )ers:

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E0e #!i,e S#mmar' of Resear ) Pro+osa& (ma0im#m 144 5or"s) (/5 marks) (Please include the back !"und "# !esea!ch$ lite!atu!e !e%ie&s$ "b'ecti%es$ !esea!ch (eth"d"l" ) and e*+ected "utc"(es #!"( the !esea!ch +!"'ect,

The research project is a proposal to show that microbial fuel cells can be used as a new source of energy. The microbes used are of the geobacter family which is under the category of electricigens or electricproducing microbes by oxidizing materials. Process of electric generation weighs heavily on the hypothesis whereby redox reaction principles are applied. Using this knowledge a battery can be modeled. !fter reviewing articles it was deemed that this emerging technology of generating electricity with use of microbes shows promise as well as being efficient and environment friendly. The objectives of this research project are to study electron transfer efficiency of electricity generation and the reliability of the chosen geobacter species to be used as a microbial fuel cell component. The project will be carried out by modeling the microbial processes to generate and capture the electricity to be used in a lab-scale stage in order to test it. "etting up of e#uipment which depicts the redox reactions to study how the electricity generation and capture can be done. !lso the use of silver is employed as it is a natural deterrent to microbes. The future of this technology is still bright as there is new ingenuity as placing $ different microbes together in order to further improve the fuel cell by allowing light response electric generation. Though this is new technology but this proposal is not the first or pioneer and thus cannot be patented. %owever publications in journals can be done as it depicts geobacter species to be used which most publications only performed microbe specific experiments instead of generalizing them. (267 words)

C(,)

De!ai&e" +ro+osa& of resear ) +roje !: (a) Resear ) %a k3ro#$" i$ &#"i$3 H'+o!)esis a$" Li!era!#re Re,ie5s (ma0im#m /544 5or"s) (64 marks)

BACKGROUND &lectricity is crucial for human beings and is a part of life. This is common as in most of the cellular metabolic processes involve electric energy as well. 'ell what are electricigens( These organisms termed electricigens are microorganisms capable of oxidizing organic matter completely to carbon dioxide while simultaneously transferring electrons to an electrode. )n short electricigens are able to convert the biomass to electricity without the consumption of fossil fuels. )t also offers possibility of converting organic wastes to electricity in self-sustaining systems efficiently with long-term stability. The discovery of these organisms introduced the new technology called *icrobial +uel ,ells -*+,.. The whole proposal is about using microbes to produce electricity. The system known as microbial fuel cell -*+,.. This system drives the current by using bacterial interactions and its bio-electrochemical. The power of bacteria is being harnessed and the energy released in metabolic reactions is converted into electrical energy in *+,. )n general the cell is made of two electrodes separated by a semi-permeable membrane and submersed in an electrolyte solution. +or a typical *+, as shown in -+)/U0& 1 !ppendix !. both electrodes are connected by a wire. The anode part -negatively charged electrode. are the place that bacteria growing on it. +ood wastes and sewage are broken down by these bacteria to generate an electric current. The process continues to produce electricity as the bacteria reproduces and grow. !s long there is a food source to the bacteria it will continue to replicate and generate power indefinitely. *+, process implies that it is self-sustaining as it uses microbes to generate electricity. +urthermore *+, is environment-friendly as it does not rely on fossil fuels to produce energy. )t is also an efficient system. /enerally *+, have two important points. +irst to supply energy to small efficient electrical devices in remote locations for the example scientific monitoring instruments in deep sea basin. "econdly cogeneration of electricity during the wastewater treatment. !dvances in bioremediation - removing pollution from the environment using living organisms - have demonstrated that some electricigens are very useful in groundwater remediation of heavy metals such as Uranium. )n general there are two categories for *+,2 a. 'ith a mediator b. *ediator-less. The first *+, invented are combined with a mediator and was introduced in the early $3 th century a chemical that transfers electrons from the bacteria in the cell to the anode. )n 1453s mediator-less *+, was introduced. )n this mediator-less *+, on the outer membrane of the bacteria consisting of electrochemically active redox protein which enables electron transfer directly to the

anode.

HYPHOTHESIS "mart /uess2 Using electricigens can produce electricity. The electricigens belong to the family of /eobacteraceae and under genus of geobacter. )t belongs to the species of /.sulfurreducens. 0efer to !ppendix ! +igure $ for a picture of electricigens. &lectricigens are able to generate electricity which can be explained by redox reactions. )n redox reactions a chemical compound will be oxidized -loses an electron. while another chemical compound is reduced -gains an electron. simultaneously. This is how the reaction happens- )n redox reaction the dissimilar metal reducing bacteria -6*07. will transfer the electron to poorly soluble hydroxides of +e and *n whereby electricigens will then transfer the electrons to the electrodes. &lectrodes then act as sole electron acceptors allowing the functioning of *+,.

LITERATURE REVIEWS 'hat inspires our group to propose this geobacter is its great performance and harmlessness. /eobacter generate electricity without consume any fossil fuels. +ossil fuels will produces side products harmful to the human body and pollute the environment. )n *+, as long as the food nutrient sources are supply to the bacteria the electricity can be generated continuously. Using geobacter to produce electricity is green and it8s high efficiency rate that8s the strong reason why we proposed it. /eobacter can perform the electron transfer reactions in its extracellular with the aids of electrically conductive pili. This reaction is very important in the aspect of bioenergy applications. 0ecently m7)9 has published the mechanisms of reaction chains for a long-range electrons transport along the pili in the extracellular. )n this it8s show that for all metallic-like conductivity it8s essential for important functions such as extracellular electron transfer to iron minerals and electrodes. )n Pil! there are five aromatic amino acids located in the end of its carboxyl. The pili conductivity needs the structural pilin protein to function. )n the addition the Pil! can be modified to !ro-: to reduce its conductivity. !ro-: is yield by replaced the aromatic amino acids at the carboxyl end of Pil! with an alanine. These researches show that the long-range electron transport along pili in the extracellular can be attributed to metallic-like conductivity a new paradigm for biological electron transfer and indicate that the pili account for the conductivity of geobacter biofilms. (7 ! words)

(%) O%je !i,e (s) of !)e Resear )

(5 marks)

1. To study the electron transfer of /eobacter in fuel cells $. To determine if efficiency of microbial fuel cells are within acceptable range for commercialization. ;. To study the reliability of /eobacter in converting glucose to generate electricity in fuel cells.

( )

Des ri+!io$ of .e!)o"o&o3'

(64 marks)

*icrobes generating energy is not a new thing but in fact a natural process. There are a variety of microbes capable of generating energy. %owever most microbes cannot oxidize everything. +or instance Geobacter is capable of oxidizing organic acids and aromatic compound but are unable to oxidize sugar. Thus in order for them to oxidize sugar fermentative microorganisms need to be added to convert the sugar into organic acids first. !nother type of microbe Rhodoferax on the other hand is capable to directly converting sugar to electricity. %owever Geobacter is a better choice due to its relatively higher growth rate. )n order to start an energy generation process a glass chamber is prepared. ,ontinuous flow of organic fuel is sent into the glass chamber. There are many types of organic fuel that can be used such as mud wastewater sugar solution organic acids and aromatic compounds. The selection of the organic fuel is highly dependent on the type of microbe used. "ince water pollution is becoming a large issue waste water is incorporated into the process of generating energy as it is full of the essential organic compounds for energy generation and at the same time the usage of it can help reduce pollution problem. ! cation-selective membrane is placed in the middle of the glass chamber. Two pieces of graphite that are connected externally which act as the electrodes are then submerged into both sides of the membrane in the glass chamber separately. Geobacter is added to one side of the membrane and this side of the membrane is labeled as the anode chamber. 'hen Geobacter ingest the organic matter in the waste water they produce electrons. These electrons will be attracted to the anode and then flow through the external circuit to the cathode forming a complete circuit. 9xygen is allowed to flow into the other side of the membrane which is labeled as the cathode chamber which acts as an electron-attracting agent which enables the completion of the circuit. The cation-selective membrane acts as a selective barrier which permits protons from the oxidized organic matter to flow to the cathode chamber which then combines with electrons and oxygen molecules to form water. !t the same time this membrane prevents oxygen from passing through it and flow to the anode chamber. This is very important as one of the main problems faced by researchers when generating energy using microbes is that the microbes will ingest the electron-attracting oxygen and causes a short circuit. The diagram showing how the set up looks like using Geobacter as the microbe to generate energy is available in appendix ! +igure 1.

The set up shown is the initial arrangement of the microbial fuel cell. %owever this arrangement is not the best one. !s mentioned the role of the cation-selective membrane is very important because if oxygen is allowed to flow to the anode chamber there is a high possibility that a short circuit will happen. Producing a membrane with such high efficiency capable of fully preventing the flow of oxygen molecules is very difficult. Thus a amendments were made to the set up above. )nstead of using oxygen to gather the electron silver oxide is used. The set up is similar to the previous one but this time no oxygen is flowing into the glass chamber and the cathode is replaced with the one made from silver oxide. !lthough there are other materials which can be used as the cathode such as iron-))). oxide and lead-)). oxide silver oxide is one of the most ideal materials to be used. This is because silver oxide does a good job at collecting electrons and at the same time has a special feature as a natural microbe repellent which prevents the microbes from sticking onto it. %ence even if the selective membrane is not that efficient the chances of short circuit can still be minimized. )nstead of pouring Geobacter into the organic fuel Geobacter are grown around a carbon cloth which is then directly used as the anode. !lthough silver oxide is a great alternative as the cathode however as time goes on the silver oxide will be reduced to silver. Thus the cathode need to be removed from the system from time to time to convert the black silver metal back to silver oxide through some chemical processes. "ince the process is very simple it is not much of a problem. The main concern for the usage of silver oxide is its high price. (7"# words)

(") (e)

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(5 marks) (5 marks)

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The expected result is that this geobacter is able to provide electricity through the use of microbial fuel cell with the generation of energy through electrons in a glass chamber with the use of silver oxide instead of oxygen. 7ased on new research and findings to enhance this there is a light sensitive green sulfur bacterium namely Chlorobium that can act in tandem with geobacter to produce a light responsive form of electricity generation. /eobacter is not light responsive on its own because it is not a photosynthetic

organism. )n contrast photosynthetic ,hlorobium is unable to carry anode form of respiration through necessary for electrical production. 7ut when you put this two together a light response of electricity will be generated.
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7ased on using bio batteries for microbial fuel cell this project design is to be patented. This project is not new as it seems but it has been improved on several terms. This project is different in the sense that material used for the production of energy is within a short lapse of time which is beneficial to people. Thus it can8t be patented however is able to be published in journals as a refined research material. +urthermore this project is environmental friendly. 7io-batteries used are not harmful to the environment where it does not cause pollution. ,ompared to other major researches the fossil fuels used for this purpose emits polluted toxic waste which is harmful but for as this project the geobacter used is environmentally friendly. %ence the use of silver oxide to replace oxygen is good as it prevents short circuit. 7esides that this invention is cheap and would be easily attainable in the market industry. 7io-batteries used from geobacter is highly efficient with the low cost spend.
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(/6 marks) Amo#$! R. /18 644 R. 952:45 R. 96;:49 R. /48 2<5:/6

R505,2/% M,)52(,-0 ,&8 S166-(50 @C$&01+,7-50A

S65/(,- S529(/50 " M(&$2 EC1(6+5&)

TOTAL Information on the budget can e found in Appendix B 1.

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The geobacter species is well known for their electron transfer ability by oxidizing organic compounds to electrodes. <ike other electrigens geobacter species is able to derive energy to support growth from organic matter oxidation with an electrode that serves as the sole electron acceptor. %owever as compared to other pure cultures such as Rhodoferax /eobacter is able to generate the highest current density and often highly enriched on electrodes harvesting electricity from a diversity of environments. /eobacter sulfurreducens has become the organism of choice for studying the mechanisms for direct electron transfer from microbial biofilms to electrodes.

/eobacter as microbial fuel cells can prove to be a technical success via altering the growth of geobacter. 'ith computer reconstructions it is able to show howelectron is transferred to the outside would affect growth of the geobacter. 7ased on this insight it is then modified such that it would improve the generation of electrons in energy applications. 'henelectron transfer to the outside environment is energetically taxing= this means that the microbes are busy pumping electrons into the environment. This also shows that they are not busy growing or reproducing. ,omputer reconstructions also reveal that by starving the geobacter it can cause a decrease in bacteria growth and reproduction therefore increasing generation of electrons needed to produce energy in microbial fuel cells. )n terms of environmental success geobacter8s advantage lies in its ability to consume waste materials. The primary near-term practical application of fuel cells powered by electricigens is likely to be sediment fuel cells designed to power electronic monitoring e#uipment in remote locations. %owever this microorganism can extract electricity from a wide range of other sources of microbially degradable organic wastes or renewable biomass. !lthough by oxidizing these organic biomass will produce carbon dioxide this process returns only recently fixed carbon to the atmosphere and thus not a net contributor to carbon level content in atmosphere. 'hen biomass wastes are the energy source for the geobacter microbe environmental contaminants are consumed while generating electricity at the same time. +or example geobacter can convert swine wastes to electricity thusavoiding waste-handling processthat releases methane and odour-causingorganic acids to the environment. 0esearch shows that geobacters are accounted for more than 53> of the microbesliving on the surface of anodes that were immersed in the swine waste. /eobacters may be proven practical for some relatively high-energy li#uid wastes such as biomass waste produced via food processing or milk.The electricity generated by geobacters could help food processing factories to cover treatment costs. ($%" words)
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9ne of the most substantial challenges to be faced during the course of this project is to increase the effectiveness of the bacteria used in the bio battery to convert the medium into usable electricity. This is because different types of bacteria re#uire different optimum conditions in which they can consume the substrate and produce the product -current.. 9ptimum condition here refers to the type of medium used the type of environment the battery is used and the design of the battery. 'ithout the proper medium or conditions the bacteria will cease to provide proper enriching for the electrode which would affect the amount of current that can be generated. 9ur solution to solve the problem is to use a microbe which is commonly known as Geobacter Sulfurreducen. This microbe when subjected under poor anaerobic condition can still produce the same amount of current as it was in a rich medium environment. This is important as to make sure the microbe can still oxidize the organic matter and transfer electrons to the anode. *oreover the amount of current produced using Geobacter Sulfurreducens is higher compared to other microbes which further enhance its organic electron donor capabilities. )n addition this microbe Geobacter Sulfurreducens compared to Escherichia coli, does not need mediators -electron shuttling compounds. such as thionine and methyl viologen which can be non environmental friendly. (22" words)

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This bio battery project deserves the sustainable technology award from ),hem& because batteries which are producing energy from the metabolism reaction of microorganisms benefit the world in many ways. +irst and foremost with the use of bio batteries= electricity can be produced from almost any waste materials whether it be domestic or agricultural this would benefit many countries as landfills all over the world are diminishing by the day. 'ith bio batteries domestic wastes which are found in the landfills can then be used as food source -medium. for the microbes to produce electricity -product. which is then delivered in the form of a battery. "econdly bio batteries also known as *icrobial +uel ,ells can also be used by communities living deep in rural areas this has been done in rural villages such as ?amibia by which electricity is produced by *+,8s buried in the ground and the *+, provides sufficient energy for the people for months. This shows the innovative capabilities of bio batteries in helping our communities. Thirdly bio batteries are environmental friendly compared to conventional batteries which when mishandled could pollute the environment. %eavy metals such as mercury and harmful electrolytes can be released into the surroundings. %owever this is not the problem with bio batteries as they use microbes instead of heavy metals and electrolyte to produce electricity. *oreover bio batteries can also be a better alternative compared to hydrogen fuel cells as hydrogen fuel cells indirectly pollute the environment due to the fact that it is produced through fossil fuels. )n addition bio batteries do not depend on external extremities such as the weather compared to solar energy and wind energy which is highly influenced by the weather. This is due to the very nature of the microbe which only needs a medium to produce energy. )n a conclusion this project named bio battery has the credibility to be the choice of energy for the future thus it deserves the sustainable technology award from ),%&*&. (&&# words)

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