Simulation of C-MEMS Based Enzymatic Biofuel Cell

Y. Parikh, V. Penmatsa, J. Yang, and C. Wang

Department of Mechanical & Material Science Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
Published in 2008

An Enzymatic Biofuel Cell (EBFC) converts the chemical energy in biological fuels into electricity. In this work, we optimize the performance of the Carbon-Micro Electro Mechanical system in an EBFC by using COMSOL Multiphysics.

With a simple model, we realized that most of the glucose reacts with enzymes at the top of the electrode posts, while the bottoms of the posts remain deficient of the substance. This is due to the slow diffusion of the glucose and high reaction rate of enzymes.

In a more complex model of an EBFC, the potential distribution was modeled taking into account glucose and O2 diffusion around the electrode posts and the redox reaction of fuels based on enzyme kinetics.

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