The Supergen5 Biological Fuel Cells Consortium
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Chemistry
Abstract
A consortium of teams from 6 universities aims to achieve major advances in a technology that potentially produces electricity directly from sustainable biological materials and air, in devices known as biological fuel cells. These devices are of two main types: in microbial fuel cells micro-organisms convert organic materials into fuels that can be oxidised in electrochemical cells, and in enzymatic fuel cells electricity is produced as a result of the action of an enzyme (a biological catalyst). Fuels that can be used include (1) pure biochemicals such as glucose, (2) hydrogen gas and (3) organic chemicals present in waste water.The Consortium programme involves a unique combination of microbiology, enzymology, electrochemistry, materials science and computational modelling. Key challenges that the Consortium will face include modelling and understanding the interaction of an electrochemical cell and a population of micro-organisms, attaching and optimising appropriate enzymes, developing and studying synthetic assemblies that contain the active site of a natural enzyme, optimising electrode materials for this application, and designing, building and testing novel biological fuel cells.A Biofuel Cells Industrial Club is to be formed, with industrial partners active in water management, porous materials, microbiology, biological catalysis and fuel cell technology. The programme and its outcomes will be significant steps towards producing electricity from materials and techniques originating in the life sciences. The technology is likely to be perceived as greener than use of solely chemical and engineering approaches, and there is considerable potential for spin off in changed technologies (e.g. cost reductions, reduction in the need for precious metals, biological catalysts for production of hydrogen by electrolysis).
Organisations
- University of Oxford (Lead Research Organisation)
- Kelda Group (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Anglian Water Services (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Thames Water (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Heraeus (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- MAST Carbon (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- CMR Surgical (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Biocatalysts (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Amini N
(2011)
Processing of strong and highly conductive carbon foams as electrode
in Carbon
Armstrong F
(2009)
Dynamic electrochemical investigations of hydrogen oxidation and production by enzymes and implications for future technology
in Chem. Soc. Rev.
Beecroft NJ
(2012)
Dynamic changes in the microbial community composition in microbial fuel cells fed with sucrose.
in Applied microbiology and biotechnology
Blanford CF
(2008)
Efficient electrocatalytic oxygen reduction by the 'blue' copper oxidase, laccase, directly attached to chemically modified carbons.
in Faraday discussions
Boghani H
(2014)
Controlling for peak power extraction from microbial fuel cells can increase stack voltage and avoid cell reversal
in Journal of Power Sources
Cracknell JA
(2009)
A kinetic and thermodynamic understanding of O2 tolerance in [NiFe]-hydrogenases.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Dos Santos L
(2010)
Mechanistic studies of the 'blue' Cu enzyme, bilirubin oxidase, as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Goldet G
(2008)
Hydrogen Production under Aerobic Conditions by Membrane-Bound Hydrogenases from Ralstonia Species
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Hunt NT
(2016)
Detection of Transient Intermediates Generated from Subsite Analogues of [FeFe] Hydrogenases.
in Inorganic chemistry
Ibrahim S
(2010)
Artificial hydrogenases: assembly of an H-cluster analogue within a functionalised poly(pyrrole) matrix.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Kim J
(2009)
Development of a tubular microbial fuel cell (MFC) employing a membrane electrode assembly cathode
in Journal of Power Sources
Kim J
(2011)
Increasing power recovery and organic removal efficiency using extended longitudinal tubular microbial fuel cell (MFC) reactors
in Energy Environ. Sci.
Kim JR
(2011)
Application of Co-naphthalocyanine (CoNPc) as alternative cathode catalyst and support structure for microbial fuel cells.
in Bioresource technology
Kim JR
(2011)
Spatiotemporal development of the bacterial community in a tubular longitudinal microbial fuel cell.
in Applied microbiology and biotechnology
Kim JR
(2010)
Modular tubular microbial fuel cells for energy recovery during sucrose wastewater treatment at low organic loading rate.
in Bioresource technology
Lazarus O
(2009)
Water-gas shift reaction catalyzed by redox enzymes on conducting graphite platelets.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Lukey MJ
(2010)
How Escherichia coli is equipped to oxidize hydrogen under different redox conditions.
in The Journal of biological chemistry
Michie I
(2011)
The influence of psychrophilic and mesophilic start-up temperature on microbial fuel cell system performance
in Energy & Environmental Science
Michie IS
(2011)
Operational temperature regulates anodic biofilm growth and the development of electrogenic activity.
in Applied microbiology and biotechnology
Ofiteru ID
(2010)
Combined niche and neutral effects in a microbial wastewater treatment community.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Oh ST
(2010)
Sustainable wastewater treatment: how might microbial fuel cells contribute.
in Biotechnology advances
Popov A
(2012)
The effect of physico-chemically immobilized methylene blue and neutral red on the anode of microbial fuel cell
in Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering
Premier G
(2011)
Automatic control of load increases power and efficiency in a microbial fuel cell
in Journal of Power Sources
Reisner E
(2009)
Visible light-driven H(2) production by hydrogenases attached to dye-sensitized TiO(2) nanoparticles.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Description | How Hydrogenases Work at the Atomic Level |
Amount | £722,942 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/N006321/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2016 |
End | 03/2019 |