Towards disposable microbial fuel cells: Natural rubber glove membranes

Winfield, Jonathan; Ieropoulos, Ioannis

Abstract

Copyright © 2013 Delta Energy and Environment. Natural rubber from laboratory gloves (GNR) was compared to cation exchange membrane (CEM) in microbial fuel cells (MFC). GNR-MFCs produced an immediate working voltage (50mV) indicating the availability of pathways for proton transfer. Their performance improved and power was 5 times higher after three weeks. Bi-directional polarisation experiments during this period showed a power increase (22%) for GNR-MFCs during the backward sweep compared to the forward, which is contrary to CEM-MFCs where power dropped by 42%. After 6 months, GNRMFCs produced 26% and 20% higher power than CEM-MFCs, when connected to 100Ohm and 1kOhm loads respectively, and reduced COD by 82% (1kOhm) and 88% (100Ohm) compared to 46% and 73% (CEM-MFCs). Under composting conditions, GNR samples degraded 100% after 268 days whilst GNR-MFC membranes were still intact and operational after a year. This innovative research could lead the way in producing inexpensive, disposable MFCs with controllable degradation.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: EFC 2013 - Proceedings of the 5th European Fuel Cell Piero Lunghi Conference
• Start Date: Dec 11, 2013
• End Date: Dec 13, 2013
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Dec 31, 2013
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2013
• Deposit Date: Nov 16, 2020
• Pages: 35-36
• Book Title: Proceedings of the 5th European Fuel Cell Piero Lunghi Conference
• ISBN: 9788882862978
• Keywords: Biodegradation, Microbial fuel cell, Natural rubber, Proton exchange membrane
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6804516