The tubular MFC with carbon tube air-cathode for power generation and N,N-dimethylacetamide treatment

Abstract

ABSTRACTA continuous flow microbial fuel cell (MFC) was assembled with carbon tube air-cathode and carbon felt anode. The organic solvent N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) was used as the only carbon source for power generation. After the adaptive phase, the cell potential was gradually increased from 0.15 to 0.45 V with 200 Ω of external resistor during 150 h of operation. The calculated power density of this MFC was 100 mW L−1 when the cell potential was 0.45 V. The reversible redox peaks of carbon tube were obtained in cyclic voltammogram between −0.5 and −0.25 V under aerobic circumstance. The removal rate of DMAC was 15–50% after treatment with hydraulic retention time of 12 min. The results indicated that it is possible to realize the power extraction from DMAC wastewater in the form of electricity by the bioconversion process of MFC.