Small ceramic microbial fuel cell as a trigenerative system for electricity, organics degradation and urine filtration

Gajda, Iwona; Greenman, John; Santoro, Carlo; Serov, Alexey; Atanassov, Plamen; Ieropoulos, Ioannis

Abstract

Bioelectrochemical systems are employing microbes as biocatalysts to convert waste into valuable resources. For example, a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) utilises chemical energy locked in human urine into direct electrical current and can be scaled-up to power practical applications [1]. It is therefore paramount to improve power output and study catalytic reactions in which wastes are converted to useful products. In this work, an iron based electrocatalyst incorporated into an air-breathing cathode was tested in order to verify the functionality of the MFC as a simple, trigenerative system for (i) improved electricity levels (ii) to efficiently treat waste (neat human urine) in the anode and (iii) to obtain electrochemically treated (cleaned) catholyte as a function of system performance. The novelty of this process is in the simplicity of the operation, chemical-free and self-sustaining recovery.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: AiMES 2018 : ECS and SMEQ Joint International Meeting
• Start Date: Sep 30, 2018
• End Date: Oct 4, 2018
• Acceptance Date: May 29, 2018
• Publication Date: Aug 6, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: microbial fuel cell, urine, Fe-NCB catalyst, bioenergy, purification, catholyte
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1434402
• Publisher URL: https://ecs.confex.com/ecs/aimes2018/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/114850
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : ECS and SMEQ Joint International Meeting