Plant Microbial Fuel Cell Energy Harvesting Boost Converter with/without the Super Capacitor

Due to high energy demands around the world, there is a need to attend for searching an alternative renewable and sustainable energy source. Plant microbial fuel cell (PMFC) is the most promising technology to generate a renewable source of energy. In this paper, a PMFC system has been developed and the generation of electricity has been tested for 365 days. The PMFC generates a maximum voltage of 0.982 V which is not enough to power the electronic device. So a self-sustainable DC-DC boost converter presents and studies the performance of the boost converter with/without the super capacitor. The DC-DC boost converter boosts up the voltage from 0.982 V to 2.562 V of outputs. It was found that the energy harvester DC-DC boost converter with the super capacitor can deliver up to 2.562 V for 13 minutes which is sufficient to power sensor devices, communication and other remote broadcasts etc.