Bi-directional electrical characterisation of microbial fuel cell

The electrical performance of microbial fuel cells in steady-state is usually investigated by standard characterisation methods that reveal many important parameters e.g. maximum power. This paper introduces a novel bi-directional method to study how the acquisition parameters (i.e. sweep rate and sweep regime) can influence measurements and consequently performance estimations. The investigation exhibited considerable differences (hysteresis) between the forward and backward characterisation regimes, indicating a difficulty to reach steady-state under certain conditions. Moreover, it is found that fast sweep rates (time-step of 2 min) can lead to an overestimation of the short-circuit currents, while prolonged operation with high external loads leads to maximum power overestimation and extended conditioning at high currents can result in its underestimation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.