Bacteria to power the smart sensor applications: Biofuel cell for low-power IoT devices

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has penetrated into a number of Smart-x applications. However, most `things' are battery powered devices with limited energy resource. We present a microbial biofuel cell based on Gluconobactor oxydans bacteria which is able to continuously generate nearly 0.2 mW·cm ^-2 at 0.5 V in waste or sewage water. The proposed solution is capable of supplying a low-power IoT device with processing, wireless communication (2.4 GHz) and sensing functions (temperature, humidity and light) onboard. The IoT device is powered via a supercapacitor which acts as an energy buffer for the biofuel harvester. The system operates at low 1% duty cycle.