A wireless charger powered the extracellular electron transfer for hydrogen recovery from organics.

Herein, a simple wireless charger which provided an alternative to conventional connection for delivering the electricity was employed to power the microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) for hydrogen recovery from organics. The coulombic efficiency of the wireless power transmission (WPT) was 75.37%, which was nearly similar to the average value of the conventional wired power transmission (CWPT) at the same experimental conditions (78.23%). The energy efficiency was 130.58%, it was clearly that the wireless charging (141.57%) slightly resulted in energy losing compared with conductive wire connection. The saving cost of WPT-driven MEC was a promising compensation to the energy loss according to the economic analysis of WPT, i.e., the WPT can be cost-beneficial once the distance between charger and reactor beyond a limited value. Overall, the feasibility of WPT suggests a straightforward way to construct large-scale MES with low cost and comparable performance.