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Abstract
Microbial fuel cells (MFC) are an emerging technology for wastewater treatment that utilizes the metabolism of microorganisms to generate electricity from the organic matter present in water directly. The principle of MFC is the same as hydrogen fuel cell and has three main components (i.e., anode, cathode, and proton exchange membrane). The membrane separates the anode and cathode chambers and keeps the anaerobic and aerobic conditions in the two chambers, respectively. This review paper describes the state-of-the-art membrane materials particularly suited for MFC and discusses the recent development to obtain robust, sustainable, and cost-effective membranes. Nafion 117, Flemion, and Hyflon are the typical commercially available membranes used in MFC. Use of non-fluorinated polymeric membrane materials such as sulfonated silicon dioxide (S-SiO2) in sulfonated polystyrene ethylene butylene polystyrene (SSEBS), sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) and graphene oxide sulfonated polyether ether ketone (GO/SPEEK) membranes showed promising output and proved to be an alternative material to Nafion 117. There are many challenges to selecting a suitable membrane for a scaled-up MFC system so that the technology become technically and economically viable.
Highlights
Nafion has been widely used in other types of fuel cells and batteries such as polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) etc
A research study showed that in (VRFB) vanadium redox flow batteries, the maximum ion exchange capacity was obtained around 1.73 meq/g using a pristine sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) membrane with the highest water uptake capacity 35.1% compared to the other types [45]
Examples are doping of polymeric compounds such as polybenzimidazole (PBI), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene, sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK), sulfonated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF) with HFP, sulfonated polystyrene ethylene butylene polystyrene (SSEBS), and sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) has been broadly studied
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Many wastewater treatment techniques are used to remove contaminants from wastewater so that it can be returned safely to the water cycle These include anaerobic digestion, aerobic activated sludge process, chemical precipitation, coagulation, flocculation, neutralization, adsorption, etc. These technologies require energy for operating and dealing with sludge management issues. In a microbial fuel cell (MFC), the electroactive microorganism called exoelectrogen consumes organic matter present in wastewater and converts it directly into electricity. The researchers showed that carbon dioxide could be reduced in the anodic chamber to form methane gas [17] Many of these findings are preliminary studies at the laboratory level. The state-of-the-art of the latest advancement of membrane and analysis of the existing knowledge on membrane materials and their impact on performance and cost are presented
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