Abstract
To improve the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs), the biocathode electrode material of double-chamber was optimized. Alongside the basic carbon fiber brush, three carbon materials namely graphite granules, activated carbon granules (ACG) and activated carbon powder, were added to the cathode-chambers to improve power generation. The result shows that the addition of carbon materials increased the amount of available electroactive microbes on the electrode surface and thus promote oxygen reduction rate, which improved the generation performance of the MFCs. The Output current (external resistance = 1000 Ω) greatly increased after addition of the three carbon materials and maximum power densities in current stable phase increased by 47.4, 166.1, and 33.5%, respectively. Additionally, coulombic efficiencies of the MFC increased by 16.3, 64.3, and 20.1%, respectively. These results show that MFC when optimized with ACG show better power generation, higher chemical oxygen demands removal rate and coulombic efficiency.
Highlights
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging and rapidly developing interdisciplinary technology that combines biotechnology, environmental engineering, and electrochemistry (ElMekawy et al, 2014; Sharma et al, 2014)
Part of the sludge was held under anaerobic conditions for 7 days, while the other was held under aerated conditions. 10 mL of each sample (MLSS ≈ 4000 mg/L) were injected into the anode chamber and the cathode chamber of the MFCs
Four reactors were used in this experiment labeled: CFB, graphite granules (GG), activated carbon granules (ACG), and activated carbon powder (ACP)
Summary
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging and rapidly developing interdisciplinary technology that combines biotechnology, environmental engineering, and electrochemistry (ElMekawy et al, 2014; Sharma et al, 2014). The open circuit voltage achieved by MFCs is almost equal to that of traditional fuel cells. The main factors influencing the electricity generation performance of MFCs include exoelectrogens (Sun et al, 2012; Debuy et al, 2015; Rimboud et al, 2015), reactor structure (Izadi et al, 2015; Tian et al, 2015), electrode material (Guerrini et al, 2015), and substrate type (Zhang et al, 2013; Tang et al, 2014; Zhang et al, 2015a). It is generally believed that the electrode material is one of the most critical factors determining MFC performance
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