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Microbial fuel cell scale-up options: Performance evaluation of membrane (c-MFC) and membrane-less (s-MFC) systems under different feeding regimes (2021)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Madrid, E., Gajda, I., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2022). Microbial fuel cell scale-up options: Performance evaluation of membrane (c-MFC) and membrane-less (s-MFC) systems under different feeding regimes. Journal of Power Sources, 520, 230875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2021.230875

In recent years, bioelectrochemical systems have advanced towards upscaling applications and tested during field trials, primarily for wastewater treatment. Amongst reported trials, two designs of urine-fed microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were tested suc... Read More about Microbial fuel cell scale-up options: Performance evaluation of membrane (c-MFC) and membrane-less (s-MFC) systems under different feeding regimes.

Effect of iron oxide content and microstructural porosity on the performance of ceramic membranes as microbial fuel cell separators (2020)
Journal Article
Salar-García, M. J., Walter, X. A., Gurauskis, J., de Ramón Fernández, A., & Ieropoulos, I. (2021). Effect of iron oxide content and microstructural porosity on the performance of ceramic membranes as microbial fuel cell separators. Electrochimica Acta, 367, Article 137385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2020.137385

Ceramic materials based on naturally occurring clays are a low cost and environmentally friendly alternative to commercial polymer-based membranes in bioelectrochemical systems. In this work, ceramic membranes containing different amounts of iron oxi... Read More about Effect of iron oxide content and microstructural porosity on the performance of ceramic membranes as microbial fuel cell separators.

Scaling up self-stratifying supercapacitive microbial fuel cell (2020)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Santoro, C., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. A. (2020). Scaling up self-stratifying supercapacitive microbial fuel cell. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 45(46), 25240-25248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.06.070

Self-stratifying microbial fuel cells with three different electrodes sizes and volumes were operated in supercapacitive mode. As the electrodes size increased, the equivalent series resistance decreased, and the overall power was enhanced (small: ES... Read More about Scaling up self-stratifying supercapacitive microbial fuel cell.

From the lab to the field: Self-stratifying microbial fuel cells stacks directly powering lights (2020)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., You, J., Winfield, J., Bajarunas, U., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. A. (2020). From the lab to the field: Self-stratifying microbial fuel cells stacks directly powering lights. Applied Energy, 277, Article 115514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115514

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology relies on energy storage and harvesting circuitry to deliver stable power outputs. This increases costs, and for wider deployment into society, these should be kept minimal. The present study reports how a MFC... Read More about From the lab to the field: Self-stratifying microbial fuel cells stacks directly powering lights.

Air-breathing cathode self-powered supercapacitive microbial fuel cell with human urine as electrolyte (2020)
Journal Article
Santoro, C., Walter, X. A., Soavi, F., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2020). Air-breathing cathode self-powered supercapacitive microbial fuel cell with human urine as electrolyte. Electrochimica Acta, 353, Article 136530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136530

In this work, a membraneless microbial fuel cell (MFC) with an empty volume of 1.5 mL, fed continuously with hydrolysed urine, was tested in supercapacitive mode (SC-MFC). In order to enhance the power output, a double strategy was used: i) a double... Read More about Air-breathing cathode self-powered supercapacitive microbial fuel cell with human urine as electrolyte.

Urine in bioelectrochemical systems: An overall review (2020)
Journal Article
Santoro, C., Garcia, M. J. S., Walter, X. A., You, J., Theodosiou, P., Gajda, I., …Ieropoulos, I. (2020). Urine in bioelectrochemical systems: An overall review. ChemElectroChem, 7(6), 1312-1331. https://doi.org/10.1002/celc.201901995

In recent years, human urine has been successfully used as an electrolyte and organic substrate in bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) mainly due of its unique properties. Urine contains organic compounds that can be utilised as a fuel for energy recov... Read More about Urine in bioelectrochemical systems: An overall review.

Scalability and stacking of self-stratifying microbial fuel cells treating urine (2020)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Santoro, C., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. A. (2020). Scalability and stacking of self-stratifying microbial fuel cells treating urine. Bioelectrochemistry, 133, Article 107491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioelechem.2020.107491

The scalability of Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is key to the development of stacks. A recent study has shown that self-stratifying membraneless MFCs (S-MFCs) could be scaled down to 2 cm without performance deterioration. However, the scaling-up limi... Read More about Scalability and stacking of self-stratifying microbial fuel cells treating urine.

Microbial fuel cells directly powering a microcomputer (2019)
Journal Article
Walter, A., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2020). Microbial fuel cells directly powering a microcomputer. Journal of Power Sources, 446, Article 227328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.227328

© 2019 The Authors Many studies have demonstrated that microbial fuel cells (MFC) can be energy-positive systems and power various low power applications. However, to be employed as a low-level power source, MFC systems rely on energy management circ... Read More about Microbial fuel cells directly powering a microcomputer.

Self-stratified and self-powered micro-supercapacitor integrated into a microbial fuel cell operating in human urine (2019)
Journal Article
Santoro, C., Walter, X. A., Soavi, F., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2019). Self-stratified and self-powered micro-supercapacitor integrated into a microbial fuel cell operating in human urine. Electrochimica Acta, 307, 241-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2019.03.194

© 2019 The Authors A self-stratified microbial fuel cell fed with human urine with a total internal volume of 0.55 ml was investigated as an internal supercapacitor, for the first time. The internal self-stratification allowed the development of two... Read More about Self-stratified and self-powered micro-supercapacitor integrated into a microbial fuel cell operating in human urine.

Scalability of self-stratifying microbial fuel cell: Towards height miniaturisation (2019)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Santoro, C., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. A. (2019). Scalability of self-stratifying microbial fuel cell: Towards height miniaturisation. Bioelectrochemistry, 127, 68-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioelechem.2019.01.004

© 2019 The Authors The scalability of bioelectrochemical systems is a key parameter for their practical implementation in the real-world. Up until now, only urine-fed self-stratifying microbial fuel cells (SSM-MFCs) have been shown to be scalable in... Read More about Scalability of self-stratifying microbial fuel cell: Towards height miniaturisation.

Binder materials for the cathodes applied to self-stratifying membraneless microbial fuel cell (2018)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2018). Binder materials for the cathodes applied to self-stratifying membraneless microbial fuel cell. Bioelectrochemistry, 123, 119-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioelechem.2018.04.011

© 2018 The Authors The recently developed self-stratifying membraneless microbial fuel cell (SSM-MFC) has been shown as a promising concept for urine treatment. The first prototypes employed cathodes made of activated carbon (AC) and polytetrafluoroe... Read More about Binder materials for the cathodes applied to self-stratifying membraneless microbial fuel cell.

Self-stratifying microbial fuel cell: The importance of the cathode electrode immersion height (2018)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Santoro, C., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2019). Self-stratifying microbial fuel cell: The importance of the cathode electrode immersion height. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 44(9), 4524-4532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.07.033

© 2018 The Author(s) Power generation of bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) is a very important electrochemical parameter to consider particularly when the output has to be harvested for practical applications. This work studies the effect of cathode... Read More about Self-stratifying microbial fuel cell: The importance of the cathode electrode immersion height.

PEE POWER® urinal II - Urinal scale-up with microbial fuel cell scale-down for improved lighting (2018)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Merino-Jiménez, I., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2018). PEE POWER® urinal II - Urinal scale-up with microbial fuel cell scale-down for improved lighting. Journal of Power Sources, 392, 150-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2018.02.047

© 2018 The Authors A novel design of microbial fuel cells (MFC) fuelled with undiluted urine was demonstrated to be an efficient power source for decentralised areas, but had only been tested under controlled laboratory conditions. Hence, a field-tri... Read More about PEE POWER® urinal II - Urinal scale-up with microbial fuel cell scale-down for improved lighting.

Urine transduction to usable energy: A modular MFC approach for smartphone and remote system charging (2016)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Stinchcombe, A., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2017). Urine transduction to usable energy: A modular MFC approach for smartphone and remote system charging. Applied Energy, 192, 575-581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.06.006

© 2016 The Authors This study reports for the first time the full charging of a state-of-the-art mobile smartphone, using Microbial Fuel Cells fed with urine. This was possible by employing a new design of MFC that allowed scaling-up without power de... Read More about Urine transduction to usable energy: A modular MFC approach for smartphone and remote system charging.

Scaling-up of a novel, simplified MFC stack based on a self-stratifying urine column (2016)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Gajda, I., Forbes, S., Winfield, J., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2016). Scaling-up of a novel, simplified MFC stack based on a self-stratifying urine column. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 9(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-016-0504-3

© 2016 Walter et al. Background: The microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a technology in which microorganisms employ an electrode (anode) as a solid electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration. This results in direct transformation of chemical energy into e... Read More about Scaling-up of a novel, simplified MFC stack based on a self-stratifying urine column.

On hybrid circuits exploiting thermistive properties of slime mould (2016)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Horsfield, I., Mayne, R., Ieropoulos, I. A., & Adamatzky, A. (2016). On hybrid circuits exploiting thermistive properties of slime mould. Scientific Reports, 6(23924), https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23924

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by the unaided eye. Let the slime mould span two electrodes with a single protoplasmic tube: if the tube is heated to approximately ≈40 °C, the electrical resistance of the protoplasmic tube... Read More about On hybrid circuits exploiting thermistive properties of slime mould.

From single MFC to cascade configuration: The relationship between size, hydraulic retention time and power density (2016)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Forbes, S., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. A. (2016). From single MFC to cascade configuration: The relationship between size, hydraulic retention time and power density. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 14, 74-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2016.01.006

© 2016 The Authors. Achieving useful electrical power production with the MFC technology requires a plurality of units. Therefore, the main objective of much of the MFC research is to increase the power density of each unit. Collectives of MFCs will... Read More about From single MFC to cascade configuration: The relationship between size, hydraulic retention time and power density.

Stability and reliability of anodic biofilms under different feedstock conditions: Towards microbial fuel cell sensors (2015)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., You, J., Greenman, J., Melhuish, C., & Ieropoulos, I. (2015). Stability and reliability of anodic biofilms under different feedstock conditions: Towards microbial fuel cell sensors. Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research, 6, 43-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbsr.2015.11.007

© 2015 The Authors. Stability and reliability of microbial fuel cell anodic biofilms, consisting of mixed cultures, were investigated in a continuously fed system. Two groups of anodic biofilm matured with different substrates, acetate and casein for... Read More about Stability and reliability of anodic biofilms under different feedstock conditions: Towards microbial fuel cell sensors.

Fade to Green: A Biodegradable Stack of Microbial Fuel Cells (2015)
Journal Article
Winfield, J., Chambers, L. D., Rossiter, J., Stinchcombe, A., Walter, X. A., Greenman, J., & Ieropoulos, I. (2015). Fade to Green: A Biodegradable Stack of Microbial Fuel Cells. ChemSusChem, 8(16), 2705-2712. https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201500431

© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. The focus of this study is the development of biodegradable microbial fuel cells (MFCs) able to produce useful power. Reactors with an 8mL chamber volume were designed using all biodegradable produ... Read More about Fade to Green: A Biodegradable Stack of Microbial Fuel Cells.

Microbial fuel cells continuously fuelled by untreated fresh algal biomass (2015)
Journal Article
Walter, X. A., Greenman, J., Taylor, B., & Ieropoulos, I. A. (2015). Microbial fuel cells continuously fuelled by untreated fresh algal biomass. Algal Research, 11, 103-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2015.06.003

© 2015. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are energy transducers that convert organic matter directly into electricity, via the anaerobic respiration of electro-active microorganisms. An avenue of research in this field is to employ algae as the organic c... Read More about Microbial fuel cells continuously fuelled by untreated fresh algal biomass.