Development of a Methane-Based Biological Fuel Cell
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Date
2022-04-20
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Abstract
Methane is a widely available energy resource that can be obtained biologically and via natural gas. However, using methane as a fuel in low-temperature fuel cells has been a challenge due to its high thermodynamic stability. The feasibility of utilizing methane in a low-temperature biological fuel cell to generate electrical energy was studied in the current study.
A microbial fuel cell containing a pure culture of Methylococcus capsulatus was evaluated in salt bridge or PEM modes with or without the addition of supplementary electron mediators. Additionally, an enzymatic microbial fuel cell that utilized a crude enzyme extract separated from disrupted cells as the sole biocatalyst was developed and tested. Although the cell was stable throughout the test duration of ten days in the whole-cell mode, the stability declined within minutes in the enzymatic mode.
Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopic studies showed that the biofilm on the anode took approximately one day to stabilize and continued to operate at full power for 7 test days. Additionally, two mathematical models were developed to predict and explain the fuel cell's electrochemical performance and mechanic details.
This work demonstrates the feasibility of generating electricity via a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell in microbial and enzymatic modes using methane as the only carbon source at room temperature with a pure culture of Methylococcus capsulatus as a direct electron-transporting biocatalyst.
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Renewable Energy, Methane, Fuel cell, Biological fuel cell, Enzymatic fuel cell, Methane Monooxygenases, pMMO, Mathematical Modeling