Boat deployed BMFC

Boat-deployed systems are those that can be launched and installed by the crew on the boat. For our systems, an installation device is lowered to the sediment. Burial of the anode and placement of cathode and electronics package are started by towing the system with the boat [7]. Our experience has shown that deploying large BMFCs is most easily done with a boat-deployment system such as the systems developed in our laboratory. Therefore, in this chapter, we focus on boat-deployed systems. 

A schematic of the BMFC boat-based deployment process is shown in Figure 11.4. The anode and the protective screen are loaded into the plow blades, and the cathode cage is loaded into the deployment bay on the top of the sled. The sled is first lowered to the seafloor using a winch cable from the boat. The winch cable is connected to a... 

Figure 11.4 Step-by-step BMFC deployment (1) BMFC sled is lowered to sediment (2) cathode pod releases as boat begins pulling the BMFC sled (3) the cathode pod acts as an anchor to initiate paying out the anode (4) the BMFC is fully deployed and the BMFC sled is recovered.

In this example case, we planned to monitor power generation in a boat house next to the deployment, so we needed to wire BMFCs directly to the inside of the boat house. Step-by-step underwater cable connections and water-proofing instructions are given as follows and depicted in Figures 11.8 and 11.9 for this type of configuration. 

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