Biobased electricity in developing countries

project summary

It is generally recognized that institutions such as schools in rural communities in developing countries lack access to electricity produced in cost-effective and “climate friendly” ways. Microbial fuel cells (MFC) can directly produce 100 W of electricity per m3 reactor from sugar and other biobased compounds in wastewater. A MFC is similar to a fuel cell with anode and cathode electrodes but the difference is that it uses bacteria to produce electrons from biobased compounds. This project aims at making a MFC with biobased electrode materials such as biochar and coal since these resources are available in many developing countries and easy to produce. Efficient utilization of the biobased compounds will be obtained by connecting several reactors in series to a multistep MFC since the community of bacteria will be adapted in each step and create a more robust process. The multistep MFC will finally be produced at a size of 1 m3 for electricity supply to lighting in a school in Ghana and for water purification resulting in recirculation of the nutrient content for application in the agriculture.