Effect of Light Duration and Wavelength on Electricity Generation of a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Using Activated Sludge

The use of exoelectrogenic bacteria to produce electricity has attracted much attention recently. One of the applications of this kind of bacteria is microbial fuel cell (MFC). This current study aims to investigate the effects of duration and wavelength of light radiation on agar salt-bridge MFC performance via bacteria in terms of electricity voltage and power density. Activated sludge was used as an inoculum of the MFC. The experiments were conducted under two radiation modes, i.e., normal solar radiation and full-time radiation by artificial lamps: fluorescent and LED lamps. The LED lamps include red (632 nm), yellow (594 nm), green (515 nm), and blue (463 nm). The results showed that the full-time radiation enhanced the electricity generation a little more than normal solar radiation. Among the colors, yellow LED gave the highest power density than others with less chronological fluctuations.