The impact of monochromatic blue and red LED light upon performance of photo microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii transformation F5 as biocatalyst

Photosynthetic microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) are devices that convert chemical energy into the form of electricity through the catalytic activity of photosynthetic microorganisms. Power densities produced by the photosynthetic microalgae are greatly dependant on light sources and light intensities because these two factors can affect the chlorophyll formation, photosynthesis processes and stomata opening in the microalgae cells. In the present study, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii transformation F5 was used as biocatalyst in photo microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) and were illuminated with monochromatic blue and red LED lights at various light intensities (100, 300, 600 and 900 lx), respectively. The kinetic analysis was successfully employed to describe the intracellular and extracellular electron transfer mechanism of the cells. The results demonstrate that the performance of PMFCs increased in terms of maximum power density and exchange current density (i(o)) with the tendency of decreasing in internal resistance (R-int) and over potential (eta) values as increasing monochromatic blue and red LED light intensities. However the PMFCs performed better under red LED light as compared to operating under blue LED light. The maximum power density can reach 12.947 mW m(-2), which could be a potential micro-power supply. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.