Developing a plant microbial fuel cell by planting water spinach in a hanging-submerged plant pot system

Abstract

To plant crops (especially dry crops such as water spinach) with concomitant electricity recovery, a hanging-submerged-plant-pot system (HSPP) is developed. The HSPP consists of a soil pot (anodic) partially submerged under the water surface of a cathode tank. The microbial communities changed with conditions were also investigated. It was found that with chemical fertilizers the closed-circuit voltage (CCV, with 1 kΩ) was stable (approximately 250 mV) within 28 d; however, without fertilizer, the water spinach could adjust to the environment to obtain a better power output (approximately 3 mW m^-2) at day 28. The microbial-community analyses revealed that the Pseudomonas sp. was the only exoeletrogens found in the anode pots. Using a secondary design of HSPP, for a better water-level adjustment, the maximum power output of each plant was found to be approximately 27.1 mW m^-2. During operation, high temperature resulted in low oxygen solubility, and low CCV as well. At this time, it is yet to be concluded whether the submerged water level significantly affects electricity generation.

Keywords: Algal biocathode; Dry crops; Hanging-submerged-plant-pot system; Plant microbial fuel cell; Water spinach.