Design of a mediated enzymatic fuel cell to generate power from renewable fuel sources

The present work reported a compartment-less enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) based on newly synthesized Poly(pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid-co-3-thiophene acetic acid) film containing glucose oxidase and laccase effectively wired by p-benzoquinone incorporated into the copolymer structure. The resulting system generated a power density of 18.8 µW/cm(2) with 30 mM of glucose addition at +0.94 V at room temperature. Improvements to maximize the power output were ensured with step-by-step optimization of electrode fabrication design and operational parameters for operating the system with renewable fuel sources. We demonstrated that the improved fuel cell could easily harvest glucose produced during photosynthesis to produce electrical energy in a simple, renewable and sustainable way by generating a power density of 10 nW/cm(2) in the plant leaf within 2 min. An EFC for the first time was successfully operated in municipal wastewater which contained glycolytic substances to generate electrical energy with a power output of 3.3 µW/cm(2).