A biomass-based marine sediment energy harvesting system

This paper presents the design of a new underwater energy harvesting system, which would provide persistent and sustainable power supply for remote underwater sensing and surveillance devices. The system consists of a marine sediment microbial fuel cell (MFC) and the associated power management system. The MFC exploits bacterial metabolic activities associated with the redox reaction to generate electrical energy directly from biodegradable substrates. The power management circuit collects the energy harvested by the MFC and boosts the output voltage to a sufficient and stable level for loads such as sensor devices. Simulation results of the power management integrated circuit in a 90nm CMOS process demonstrate the expected functions and the significant improvement in energy conversion efficiency.