Control of power sourced from a microbial fuel cell reduces its start-up time and increases bioelectrochemical activity

[Display omitted] •We investigate control of current and power in the start-up of microbial fuel cells.•We compared peak power point tracking and initial poised potential to static loads.•The active strategies for controlling sourced power virtually halve start-up time.•The active strategies also achieve a 3.5-fold increase in biocatalytic activity.•Power overshoot is eliminated and performance is increased with the active control. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) performance depends on the selective development of an electrogenic biofilm at an electrode. Controlled biofilm enrichment may reduce start-up time and improve subsequent power performance. The anode potential is known to affect start-up and subsequent performance in electrogenic bio-catalytic consortia. Control strategies varying electrical load through gradient based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and transient poised anode potential followed by MPPT are compared to static ohmic loading. Three replicate H-type MFCs were used to investigate start-up strategies: (1) application of an MPPT algorithm preceded by poised-potential at the anode (+0.645V vs Ag/AgCl); (2) MFC connected to MPPT-only; (3) static external load of 1kΩ and 500Ω. Active control showed a significant reduction in start-up time from 42 to 22days, along with 3.5-fold increase in biocatalytic activity after start-up. Such active control may improve applicability by accelerating start-up and enhancing MFC power and bio-catalytic performance.