On the repeatability and reproducibility of experimental two-chambered microbial fuel cells

Abstract The capability of the experimental systems used in two-chambered microbial fuel cell experimentation was tested in terms of repeatability and reproducibility. The optimal number of replicates needed to discriminate between responses of technical interest, both in open-circuit and closed-circuit experiments was studied. For N  = 4 replicates, these differences were set to 9.0% COD R units, 261 mV and 63 mg/L in VFAs for open-circuit experiments and 3.6%, 30.2 mV and 45 mg/L in closed circuit experiments. Cycling operation with several reactor refills using fresh wastewater and keeping the same biofilm between cycles almost has no influence in COD R and VFAs but voltage standard deviation reduces by one half between the first and fourth cycle. This study takes part by the option of increasing the number of replicates because although it may have lower repeatability, the amount of data generated per unit time is larger than running the experiments in cycles.

[1]  L. T. Angenent,et al.  Production of bioenergy and biochemicals from industrial and agricultural wastewater. , 2004, Trends in biotechnology.

[2]  Bruce E Logan,et al.  Cathode performance as a factor in electricity generation in microbial fuel cells. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[3]  A. E. Greenberg,et al.  Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater : supplement to the sixteenth edition , 1988 .

[4]  Zhen He,et al.  Electricity generation from artificial wastewater using an upflow microbial fuel cell. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[5]  Sang-Eun Oh,et al.  Biological hydrogen production measured in batch anaerobic respirometers. , 2002, Environmental science & technology.

[6]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[7]  Willy Verstraete,et al.  Tubular microbial fuel cells for efficient electricity generation. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[8]  J. S. Hunter,et al.  Statistics for experimenters : an introduction to design, data analysis, and model building , 1979 .

[9]  Haluk Beyenal,et al.  Microbial fuel cell using anaerobic respiration as an anodic reaction and biomineralized manganese as a cathodic reactant. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[10]  Haluk Beyenal,et al.  Wireless sensors powered by microbial fuel cells. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[11]  W. Verstraete,et al.  A microbial fuel cell capable of converting glucose to electricity at high rate and efficiency , 2004, Biotechnology Letters.

[12]  Hong Liu,et al.  Production of electricity during wastewater treatment using a single chamber microbial fuel cell. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[13]  Edward G. Schilling,et al.  Juran's Quality Handbook , 1998 .

[14]  Haluk Beyenal,et al.  Procedure for determining maximum sustainable power generated by microbial fuel cells. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[15]  Stefano Freguia,et al.  Microbial fuel cells: methodology and technology. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[16]  Bruce E Logan,et al.  Continuous electricity generation from domestic wastewater and organic substrates in a flat plate microbial fuel cell. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[17]  D. Park,et al.  Electricity Generation in Microbial Fuel Cells Using Neutral Red as an Electronophore , 2000, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.