COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC CURRENT PRODUCTION BY Saccharomyces cerevisiae USING A DUAL CHAMBER MICROBIAL FUEL CELL

Microbial Fuel Cell is a promising tool that utilizes microorganisms as biocatalysts to transform chemical energy into electrical energy. The particular microbe is able to utilize different substrates via metabolic activity resulting in the generation of electric current. The reason for the growing popularity of MFC is due to its multifaceted applications attributed to its eco-friendly nature. Even though the current generation is in milliampere (mA) scale, MFCs have unlimited benefits for future purposes. Fungi are among the microorganisms able to generate electricity as a result of their metabolic processes. The microorganism used in this study is Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast). Electrons are diverted from the electron transport chain of this single-celled eukaryote which therefore helps in the conversion of chemical energy into electrical energy. The point of this examination is to measure the amount of electric flow produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, when using copper electrodes with mediator and sources of a substrate on the production of current. For the reaction to be carried out, Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) was used as a mediator. The best results (105.3 mA) were obtained from maltose as substrate. Thus, here we describe the main findings, which can be used as the starting point for future investigations. We show that fungi have the potential to act as electrogens.