Journal Article

Environmental Sensing in High-Altitude Mountain Ecosystems Powered by Sedimentary Microbial Fuel Cells

García, Víctor J., López, Denys, Aguay, Diana, Recalde, Celso

2023

Overview

The increasing need for fresh water in a climate change scenario requires remote monitoring of water bodies in high-altitude mountain areas. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of SMFC operation in the presence of low dissolved oxygen concentrations for remote, on-site monitoring of physical environmental parameters in high-altitude mountainous areas. The implemented power management system (PMS) uses a reference SMFC (SMFCRef) to implement a quasi-maximum power point tracking (quasi-MPPT) algorithm to harvest energy stably. As a result, while transmitting in a point-to-point wireless sensor network topology, the system achieves an overall efficiency of 59.6%. Furthermore, the control mechanisms prevent energy waste and maintain a stable voltage despite the microbial fuel cell (MFC)’s high impedance, low time response, and low energy production. Moreover, our system enables a fundamental understanding of environmental systems and their resilience of adaptation strategies by being a low-cost, ecological, and environmentally friendly alternative to power-distributed and dynamic environmental sensing networks in high-altitude mountain ecosystems with anoxic environmental conditions.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: Acclimatization / Algorithms / Alternative energy sources / Altitude / Bioelectric Energy Sources / Climatic changes / distributed and local sensing / dynamic environmental sensing / Ecosystem / Ecosystems / Electrodes / Energy resources / Fresh water / Fuel cell industry / Fuel cells / local sensing environmental variables / maximum power point tracking / Monitoring systems / Mountain ecology / Sea level / Sediments / Sensors / Titanium alloys / unconventional sensing / wireless sensor network / Wireless sensor networks