Customized power management system using a capacitor array and DC/DC booster for flat-plate microbial fuel cells

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) customized power management system (PMS) provides an option to overcome a lower potential produced by a unit of MFC (0.3-0.5 V), and allows further enhancement of voltage and power of MFC system. Previous studies have designed and investigated electric boosting circuits or arrays by the series or parallel connection of capacitors, and DC/DC boost converters. On the other hand, the supply of a sustainable and stable potential to electric devices is difficult to achieve. In this study, a customized PMS was developed using a capacitor-based boost circuit (CBBC) and DC/DC boost converter (DBC) for flat plate microbial fuel cell (FPM), and the boosting effects from different circuit components were investigated. The results showed that the CBBC produced a source potential ranging from 0.78 to 1.56 V using the FPM, and the DBC (i.e., LTC3429) could successfully boost and charge a target output voltage of 3.3 V within 5 seconds on a 0.47 F capacitor using a CBBC-DBC combination.