Electricity and catholyte production from ceramic MFCs treating urine

Merino Jimenez, Irene; Ieropoulos, Ioannis; Greenman, John

Abstract

© 2016 The Authors The use of ceramics as low cost membrane materials for Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) has gained increasing interest, due to improved performance levels in terms of power and catholyte production. The catholyte production in ceramic MFCs can be attributed to a combination of water or hydrogen peroxide formation from the oxygen reduction reaction in the cathode, water diffusion and electroosmotic drag through the ion exchange membrane. This study aims to evaluate, for the first time, the effect of ceramic wall/membrane thickness, in terms of power, as well as catholyte production from MFCs using urine as a feedstock. Cylindrical MFCs were assembled with fine fire clay of different thicknesses (2.5, 5 and 10mm) as structural and membrane materials. The power generated increased when the membrane thickness decreased, reaching 2.1±0.19mW per single MFC (2.5mm), which was 50% higher than that from the MFCs with the thickest membrane (10mm). The amount of catholyte collected also decreased with the wall thickness, whereas the pH increased. Evidence shows that the catholyte composition varies with the wall thickness of the ceramic membrane. The possibility of producing different quality of catholyte from urine opens a new field of study in water reuse and resource recovery for practical implementation.

Citation

Merino Jimenez, I., Ieropoulos, I., & Greenman, J. (2017). Electricity and catholyte production from ceramic MFCs treating urine. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 42(3), 1791-1799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.09.163

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 23, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Nov 22, 2016
• Publication Date: Jan 19, 2017
• Deposit Date: Dec 2, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 7, 2016
• Journal: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
• Print ISSN: 0360-3199
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 1791-1799
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.09.163
• Keywords: Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), ceramic membrane, catholyte production, electroosmotic drag, urine.
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/899753
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.09.163
• Additional Information: Additional Information : The final publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.09.163.