Air-breathing cathode self-powered supercapacitive microbial fuel cell with human urine as electrolyte

Santoro, Carlo; Walter, Xavier Alexis; Soavi, Francesca; Greenman, John; Ieropoulos, Ioannis

Abstract

In this work, a membraneless microbial fuel cell (MFC) with an empty volume of 1.5 mL, fed continuously with hydrolysed urine, was tested in supercapacitive mode (SC-MFC). In order to enhance the power output, a double strategy was used: i) a double cathode was added leading to a decrease in the equivalent series resistance (ESR); ii) the apparent capacitance was boosted up by adding capacitive features on the anode electrode. Galvanostatic (GLV) discharges were performed at different discharge currents. The results showed that both strategies were successful obtaining a maximum power output of 1.59 ± 0.01 mW (1.06 ± 0.01 mW mL−1) at pulse time of 0.01 s and 0.57 ± 0.01 mW (0.38 ± 0.01 mW mL−1) at pulse time of 2 s. The highest energy delivered at ipulse equal to 2 mA was 3.3 ± 0.1 mJ. The best performing SC-MFCs were then connected in series and parallel and tested through GLV discharges. As the power output was similar, the connection in parallel allowed to roughly doubling the current produced. Durability tests over ≈5.6 days showed certain stability despite a light overall decrease.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 25, 2020
• Online Publication Date: May 26, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jul 27, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 28, 2020
• Journal: Electrochimica Acta
• Print ISSN: 0013-4686
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 353
• Article Number: 136530
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136530
• Keywords: Electrochemistry; General Chemical Engineering
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6388045