Contact Person: Lennart Kleinfeldt
Microbial fuel cells are a highly innovative technology, which allows the direct energetic utilization of the organic matter in municipal waste water. Electrochemically active bacteria, which are expressing electrons as a product of their metabolism, transform the energy-consuming water purification process into an energy-generating one. Additional application is the specific microbial electrosynthesis for the biotechnological production of molecules.
A scientist group with members from TU Braunschweig, Leibniz University Hannover and TU Clausthal has been created to further investigate and develop different aspects of microbial electrochemical systems.
In current systems the microorganisms are cultivated as biofilms on electrodes with varying three-dimensional structure. In this partial project of the scientist group, particulate electrode materials will be developed and characterized to investigate their suitability for the application in different bioelectrochemical systems. Redox-active metal oxide nanoparticles are synthesized in a non-aqueous sol-gel process. Subsequently, spray drying or fluidized bed agglomeration are used to obtain hierarchically structured aggregates. The surface of the as-prepared aggregates then has to be coated with carbon in order to ensure the electric conductivity as well as the biocompatibility of the aggregate structure. Finally, the product will be utilized in a fluidized bed reactor, which will be developed in cooperation with another subproject of the scientist group.
Figure left: Schematic display of a carbon-coated particle aggregate with partially attached microorganisms.
Figure right: Electron micrograph of a spray-dried agglomerate