File:Plant Microbial Fuel Cell setup.JPG

English: Schematic showing 2 real-life setups of a Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell (PMFC). The schematics were handdrawn based on the images and information in the document "Electricity generation by living plants in a plant microbial fuel cell" by Ruud Timmers

It should be noted that there are some major elements in the setups making this technology hard to implement:

• The greatest problem seems to be that the anode+membrane/cathode can not be simply placed near the plant, planted directly in a garden or an agricultural field. Rather, a whole range of non-biodegradable elements need to be used (plastic buckets/cylinders or T-junctions, catholyde solution, graphite granules, membrane, felt, ...), which are afterwards also hard to remove from the plant.
• A second disadvantage is that the plant needs to grow in less than optimal conditions (near acid environment, on graphite granules, confined in a pot, indoors (lack of light), ...)
• Thirdly, a lot of nutrients need to be added to generate any/more electricity. This as the electricity is generated from the microbes which need rhizodeposits, which in turn come from excess nutrients secreted from the plant)