A portable soil microbial fuel cell for sensing soil water content. (December 2021) - Nguyen, Hoang-Uyen-Dung
Abstract: Soil moisture and irrigation schedules generate impressionable agricultural productivity. In recent years, Soil Microbial Fuel Cell (SMFC) has been recently used as a sustainable technology because of its highly effective applications in power generation, environment pollution treatments, and sensing. Controlling the moisture of soil has a heavy impact on agricultural management. In this study, we set up a new design of SMFC for sensing soil water content. The SMFC is portable, compact, and easily installed. The SMFC operated at four states of soil moisture of 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% soil water holding capacity (SWHC) was investigated in 25 days. The SMFC showed the highest humid sensitivity in the range from 60% to 80% SWHC. In the range of less than 60% SWHC, the soil moisture was not enough to activate and maintain the SMFC operation.