A Single Inductor Self-Startup Energy Combiner Circuit With Bioturbation Resilience in Multiple Microbial Fuel Cells

This brief presents a single inductor self-startup energy combiner circuit for multiple microbial fuel cells (MFCs), providing bioturbation resilience. The proposed circuit has been verified with off-the-shelf components including two bioturbation detection & source-connected circuits (BT&SCCs), a supercapacitor, a control circuit and two boost converters. The circuit has been connected two emulated microbial fuel cells, which are used as multiple energy sources. The proposed circuit can operate at voltage as low as 0.3 V and boost the output voltage to 3.3 V. The proposed energy combiner circuit can automatically detect and remove the effect of the impaired MFC due to bioturbation. Experimental results show that the peak end-to-end efficiency of the proposed circuit is 42.16%. As compared to prior works, the proposed circuit achieves a self-startup operation with a single inductor, truly bioturbation resilience in multiple MFCs as well as a higher end-to-end efficiency.