
75Microbial Fuel Cells and Other Bio-Electrochemical Conversion Devices
no current is owing, for example, the maximum MFC voltage achieved thus
far is ~0.80 V [61]. This difference between the measured cell voltage and
the cell E
emf
is caused by various voltage losses as illustrated in Figure 2.7a.
These losses can be expressed as the sum of the anode overpotential, the
cathode overpotential and the ohmic loss of the system.
EE IR
cell emfanode cathode
+ +=−
ηη
Ω
(2.5)
where Ση
anode
and Ση
cathode
are the overpotentials of the anode and the cath-
ode, respectively, and IR
Ω
is the sum of all ohmic losses which are propor-
tional to the generated ...