Filtering by
- All Subjects: wastewater
- All Subjects: Cyanobacteria
- Creators: Torres, Cesar
- Creators: Nielsen, David
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Resource Type: Text
- Status: Published
Measuring changes in concentration within a dynamic system can be accomplished with a simple Arduino powered system. Currently, the system is utilized in cyanobacteria CO2 fixation experiments, where the fixation rates of multiple cultures can be measured simultaneously. The system employs solenoids in parallel and can be applied for n number of outlet streams, all are connected to one large manifold which feeds to a CO2 concentration probe. In the future, the system can be modified to fit other simple dynamic gas systems.
Improving cyanobacterial hydrogen production through bioprospecting of natural microbial communities
Optimizing cathodes for microbial fuel cells is important to maximize energy harvested from wastewater. Cathodes were made by modifying a recipe from previous literature and testing the current of the cathode using linear sweep voltammetry. The cathodes contained an Fe-N-C catalyst combined with a Polytetrafluoroethylene binder. Optimizing the power resulting from the microbial fuel cells will help MFCs be an alternative energy source to fossil fuels. The new cathodes did improve in current production from −16 𝐴/𝑚 to −37 𝐴/𝑚 at -0.4 V. When fitted using a Butler-Volmer model, the cathode linear-sweep voltammograms did not follow the expected exponential trend. These results show a need for more research on the cathodes and the Butler-Volmer model, and they also show that the cathode is ready for further and longer application in a microbial fuel cell.