The amount of energy output from a fungi-based Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) utilizing graphene electrodes
School Name
Spring Valley High School
Grade Level
10th Grade
Presentation Topic
Engineering
Presentation Type
Non-Mentored
Written Paper Award
3rd Place
Abstract
Researchers today are trying to find more environmentally friendly solutions for the situation we are in today with the emission of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. One of those is a microbial fuel cell (MFC), which creates energy from metabolic processes of usually a bacteria. However, most MFC’s are not as efficient or powerful to be implemented in everyday uses. It was hypothesised that if changing the microorganism used to yeast with graphene electrodes instead of a bacteria would generate voltage. To be certain the electrodes were not the ones only providing more power, a test was run with regular aluminium electrodes. A control group with E. coli as the microorganism was used for comparison. The voltage was recorded for every 30 minutes for 15 hours each. The control did not create sufficient voltage; r (31) = 0, p > 0.05, while the MFC with yeast and regular and graphene electrodes did provide significant voltage; r (31) = 0.4220, p < 0.05 and r (31) = 0.4600, p < 0.05, respectively. These tests were analyzed with a Sign test, at alpha = 0.05.
Recommended Citation
Tremolada, Edoardo, "The amount of energy output from a fungi-based Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) utilizing graphene electrodes" (2015). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 190.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2015/all/190
Start Date
4-11-2015 11:00 AM
End Date
4-11-2015 11:15 AM
The amount of energy output from a fungi-based Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) utilizing graphene electrodes
Researchers today are trying to find more environmentally friendly solutions for the situation we are in today with the emission of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. One of those is a microbial fuel cell (MFC), which creates energy from metabolic processes of usually a bacteria. However, most MFC’s are not as efficient or powerful to be implemented in everyday uses. It was hypothesised that if changing the microorganism used to yeast with graphene electrodes instead of a bacteria would generate voltage. To be certain the electrodes were not the ones only providing more power, a test was run with regular aluminium electrodes. A control group with E. coli as the microorganism was used for comparison. The voltage was recorded for every 30 minutes for 15 hours each. The control did not create sufficient voltage; r (31) = 0, p > 0.05, while the MFC with yeast and regular and graphene electrodes did provide significant voltage; r (31) = 0.4220, p < 0.05 and r (31) = 0.4600, p < 0.05, respectively. These tests were analyzed with a Sign test, at alpha = 0.05.
