Start‐Up Process Modelling of Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells Based on Data Driven

Abstract

Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are a typical microbial fuel cell without membranes. They are a device developed on the basis of electrochemistry and use microbes as catalysts to convert chemical energy stored in organic matter into electrical energy. This study selected a single‐chamber SMFC as a research object, using online monitoring technology to accurately measure the temperature, pH, and voltage of the microbial fuel cell during the start‐up process. In the process of microbial fuel cell start‐up, the relationship between temperature, pH, and voltage was analysed in detail, and the correlation between them was calculated using SPSS software. The experimental results show that, at the initial stage of SMFC, the purpose of rapid growth of power production can be achieved by a large increase in temperature, but once the temperature is reduced, the power production of SMFC will soon recover to the state before the temperature change. At the beginning of SMFC, when the temperature changes drastically, pH will change the same first, and then there will be a certain degree of rebound. In the middle stage of SMFC start‐up, even if the temperature will return to normal after the change, a continuous temperature drop in a short time will lead to a continuous decrease in pH value. The RBF neural network and ELM neural network were used to perform nonlinear system regression in the later stage of SMFC start‐up and using the regression network to forecast part of the data. The experimental results show that the ELM neural network is more excellent in forecasting SMFC system. This article will provide important guidance for shortening start‐up time and increasing power output.