Effect of various carbon-based cathode electrodes on the performance of microbial fuel cell

Document Type : Short Communications

Authors

Biofuel and Renewable Energy Research Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a prospective technology capable of purifying different types of wastewater while converting its chemical energy into electrical energy using bacteria as active biocatalysts. Electrode materials play an important role in the MFC system. In the present work, different carbon-based materials were studied as electrode and the effect of dissolved oxygen (aeration) in the cathode compartment using actual wastewater was also investigated. More specifically, the effect of different electrode materials such as graphite, carbon cloth, carbon paper (CP), and carbon nanotube platinum (CNT/Pt)-coated CP on the performance of a dual-chambered MFC was studied. Based on the results obtained, the CNT/Pt-coated CP was revealed as the best cathode electrode capable of producing the highest current density (82.38 mA/m2) and maximum power density (16.26 mW/m2) in the investigated MFC system. Moreover, aeration was found effective by increasing power density by two folds from 0.93 to 1.84 mW/m2 using graphite as the model cathode electrode.

Graphical Abstract

Effect of various carbon-based cathode electrodes on the performance of microbial fuel cell

Keywords

References

Beurskens, H., Brand, A., 2015. Wind Energy, ECN Wind Energy, Netherlands.
Chae, K.J., Choi, M.J., Lee, J.W., Kim, K.Y., Kim, I.S., 2009. Effect of different substrates on the performance, bacterial diversity, and bacterial viability in microbial fuel cells. Bioresour. Technol. 100(14), 3518-3525.
Chaudhari, S., Deshmukh, A., 2015. Studies on sewage treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater by electrogens isolated from microbial fuel cell. Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. Appl. Scie. 4(4), 118-122.
Du, Z., Li H., Gu, T., 2007. A state of the art review on microbial fuel cells: a promising technology for wastewater treatment and bioenergy. Biotechnol. Adv. 25(5), 464-482.
Freguia, S., Rabaey, K., Yuan, Z., Keller, J.,  2007. Non-catalyzed cathodic oxygen reduction at graphite granules in microbial fuel cells. Electrochim. Acta. 53(2), 598-603.
Ghasemi, M., Daud, W.R.W., Hassan, S.H., Oh, S.E., Ismail, M., Rahimnejad, M., Jahim, J.M., 2013. Nano-structured carbon as electrode material in microbial fuel cells: A comprehensive review. J. Alloys Compd. 580, 245-255.
Ghasemi, M., Ismail, M., Kamarudin, S.K., Saeedfar, K., Daud, W.R.W., Hassan, S.H., Heng L.Y., Alam, J., Oh, S.E.,2013. Carbon nanotube as an alternative cathode support and catalyst for microbial fuel cells. Appl. Energy. 102, 1050-1056.
Ghoreishi, K.B., Ghasemi, M., Rahimnejad, M., Yarmo, M.A., Daud, W.R.W., Asim, N., Ismail, M., 2014. Development and application of vanadium oxide/polyaniline composite as a novel cathode catalyst in microbial fuel cell. Int. J. Energy Res. 38(1), 70-77.
Green, M.A., Emery, K., Hishikawa, Y., Warta, W., Dunlop, E.D., 2015. Solar cell efficiency tables (Version 45).  Prog. Photovoltaics Res. Appl. 23(1), 1-9.
Guo, K., Prévoteau, A., Patil, S.A., Rabaey, K. 2015.  Engineering electrodes for microbial electrocatalysis. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 33, 149-156.
Izadi, P., M. Rahimnejad, M., 2013. Simultaneous electricity generation and sulfide removal via a dual chamber microbial fuel cell. Biofuel Res. J. 1 (1), 34-38.
Kim, H.J., Park, H.S., Hyun, M.S., Chang, I.S., Kim, M., Kim, B.H., 2002. A mediator-less microbial fuel cell using a metal reducing bacterium, Shewanella putrefaciens. Enzyme Microb. Technol. 30(2), 145-152.
Kim, K.Y., Yang, W., Logan, B.E., 2015. Impact of electrode configurations on retention time and domestic wastewater treatment efficiency using microbial fuel cells. Water Res. 80, 41-46.
Klabunde, K.J. and R.M. Richards, R.M., 2009. Nanoscale materials in chemistry, John Wiley & Sons.
Logan, B.E., 2008. Microbial fuel cells, John Wiley & Sons.
Logan, B.E., 2009. Exoelectrogenic bacteria that power microbial fuel cells. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 7(5), 375-381.
Qiao, Y., Bao, S.J., Li, C.M., Cui, X.Q., Lu, Z.S., Guo, J., 2007. Nanostructured polyaniline/titanium dioxide composite anode for microbial fuel cells. Acs Nano. 2(1), 113-119.
Qiao, Y., Li, C.M., Bao, S.J., Bao, Q.L., 2007. Carbon nanotube/polyaniline composite as anode material for microbial fuel cells. J. Power Sources. 170(1), 79-84.
Rabaey, K., Verstraete, W., 2005. Microbial fuel cells: novel biotechnology for energy generation. Trends Biotechnol. 23(6), 291-298.
Rahimnejad, M., Adhami, A., Darvari, S., Zirepour, A., Oh, S.E., 2015. Microbial fuel cell as new technology for bioelectricity generation: A review. Alexandria Eng. J. 54, 745-756.
Rahimnejad, M., Bakeri, G., Najafpour, G., Ghasemi, M., Oh, S.E., 2014. A review on the effect of proton exchange membranes in microbial fuel cells. Biofuel Res. J. 1(1), 7-15.
Scott, D.S., 2005. Fossil sources:“running out” is not the problem. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy. 30(1), 1-7.
Wang, L., Su, L., Chen, H., Yin, T., Lin, Z., Lin, X., Fu, D., 2015. Carbon paper electrode modified by goethite nanowhiskers promotes bacterial extracellular electron transfer. Mater. Lett. 141, 311-314.
Xie, X., Hu, L., Pasta, M., Wells, G.F., Kong, D., Criddle, C.S., Cui, Y., 2010. Three-dimensional carbon nanotube− textile anode for high-performance microbial fuel cells. Nano Lett. 11(1), 291-296.
Xie, X., Ye, M., Hu, L., Liu, N., McDonough, J. R., Chen, W., Alshareef, H., Criddle, C.S., Cui, Y., 2012. Carbon nanotube-coated macroporous sponge for microbial fuel cell electrodes. Energy Environ. Sci. 5(1), 5265-5270.
Zhao, F., Harnisch, F., Schröder, U., Scholz, F., Bogdanoff, P., Herrmann, I., 2005. Application of pyrolysed iron (II) phthalocyanine and CoTMPP based oxygen reduction catalysts as cathode materials in microbial fuel cells.  Electrochem. Commun. 7(12), 1405-1410

Files

Cited by

Share

How to cite

Statistics