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Urine transduction to usable energy: A modular MFC approach for smartphone and remote system charging

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  • Walter, Xavier Alexis
  • Stinchcombe, Andrew
  • Greenman, John
  • Ieropoulos, Ioannis

Abstract

This study reports for the first time the full charging of a state-of-the-art mobile smartphone, using Microbial Fuel Cells fed with urine. This was possible by employing a new design of MFC that allowed scaling-up without power density losses. Although it was demonstrated in the past that a basic mobile phone could be charged by MFCs, the present study goes beyond this to show how, simply using urine, an MFC system successfully charges a modern-day smartphone. Several energy-harvesting systems have been tested and results have demonstrated that the charging circuitry of commercially available phones may consume up to 38% of energy on top of the battery capacity. The study concludes by developing a mobile phone charger based on urine, which results in 3h of phone operation (outgoing call) for every 6h of charge time, with as little as 600mL (per charge) of real neat urine.

Suggested Citation

  • Walter, Xavier Alexis & Stinchcombe, Andrew & Greenman, John & Ieropoulos, Ioannis, 2017. "Urine transduction to usable energy: A modular MFC approach for smartphone and remote system charging," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 575-581.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:192:y:2017:i:c:p:575-581
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.06.006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Li, Yan & Williams, Isaiah & Xu, Zhiheng & Li, Baikun & Li, Baitao, 2016. "Energy-positive nitrogen removal using the integrated short-cut nitrification and autotrophic denitrification microbial fuel cells (MFCs)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 352-360.
    2. Li, Weiqing & Zhang, Shaohui & Chen, Gang & Hua, Yumei, 2014. "Simultaneous electricity generation and pollutant removal in microbial fuel cell with denitrifying biocathode over nitrite," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 136-141.
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    Cited by:

    1. de Ramón-Fernández, A. & Salar-García, M.J. & Ruiz Fernández, D. & Greenman, J. & Ieropoulos, I.A., 2020. "Evaluation of artificial neural network algorithms for predicting the effect of the urine flow rate on the power performance of microbial fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    2. Sami G. A. Flimban & Iqbal M. I. Ismail & Taeyoung Kim & Sang-Eun Oh, 2019. "Overview of Recent Advancements in the Microbial Fuel Cell from Fundamentals to Applications: Design, Major Elements, and Scalability," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Roustazadeh Sheikhyousefi, P. & Nasr Esfahany, M. & Colombo, A. & Franzetti, A. & Trasatti, S.P. & Cristiani, P., 2017. "Investigation of different configurations of microbial fuel cells for the treatment of oilfield produced water," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 457-465.
    4. Mateo, Sara & Cañizares, Pablo & Rodrigo, Manuel Andrés & Fernandez-Morales, Francisco Jesus, 2018. "Driving force of the better performance of metal-doped carbonaceous anodes in microbial fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 52-59.
    5. Xu, Zhiheng & Liu, Yucheng & Williams, Isaiah & Li, Yan & Qian, Fengyu & Wang, Lei & Lei, Yu & Li, Baikun, 2017. "Flat enzyme-based lactate biofuel cell integrated with power management system: Towards long term in situ power supply for wearable sensors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 71-80.
    6. Fischer, Fabian & Sugnaux, Marc & Savy, Cyrille & Hugenin, Gérald, 2018. "Microbial fuel cell stack power to lithium battery stack: Pilot concept for scale up," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 1633-1644.
    7. Salar-Garcia, M.J. & Montilla, F. & Quijada, C. & Morallon, E. & Ieropoulos, I., 2020. "Improving the power performance of urine-fed microbial fuel cells using PEDOT-PSS modified anodes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    8. de Ramón-Fernández, Alberto & Salar-García, M.J. & Ruiz-Fernández, Daniel & Greenman, J. & Ieropoulos, I., 2019. "Modelling the energy harvesting from ceramic-based microbial fuel cells by using a fuzzy logic approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Wang, Chin-Tsan & Lee, Yao-Cheng & Ou, Yun-Ting & Yang, Yung-Chin & Chong, Wen-Tong & Sangeetha, Thangavel & Yan, Wei-Mon, 2017. "Exposing effect of comb-type cathode electrode on the performance of sediment microbial fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 620-625.
    10. Mateo, S. & Cantone, A. & Cañizares, P. & Fernández-Morales, F.J. & Scialdone, O. & Rodrigo, M.A., 2018. "On the staking of miniaturized air-breathing microbial fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 1-8.
    11. Walter, Xavier Alexis & You, Jiseon & Winfield, Jonathan & Bajarunas, Ugnius & Greenman, John & Ieropoulos, Ioannis A., 2020. "From the lab to the field: Self-stratifying microbial fuel cells stacks directly powering lights," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    12. Lu, Zhihao & Yin, Di & Chen, Peng & Wang, Hongzhen & Yang, Yuhang & Huang, Guangtuan & Cai, Lankun & Zhang, Lehua, 2020. "Power-generating trees: Direct bioelectricity production from plants with microbial fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).

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