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A New Reactor Concept for Single-Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells and Possible Anti-Fouling Strategies for Long-Term Operation

Authors :
Dennis R. Haupt
Laura Landwehr
René Schumann
Lena Hahn
Mohammad Issa
Can Coskun
Ulrich Kunz
Michael Sievers
Source :
Microorganisms, Vol 10, Iss 12, p 2421 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells are a promising technology for future wastewater treatment, as it allows cleaning and power generation simultaneously. The bottleneck of microbial fuel cells is often its cathodes because they determine the power output. Gas diffusion electrodes might overcome this bottleneck due to their low production costs and high oxygen reduction rates. However, biofilm formation on the gas diffusion electrodes reduces their performance over time. In this work, a new reactor design of the microbial fuel cell using rotating gas diffusion electrodes is presented. The biofilm growth on the electrode during operation was observed and its effect on the performance of the microbial fuel cell was examined. In addition, different antifouling strategies were investigated over a period of 80 days. It was found that already after 7 days of operation a complete biofilm had grown on an untreated gas diffusion electrode. However, this does not seem to affect the performance of the cells in the beginning. Differences in the performance of the reactors with and without an antifouling strategy only become apparent from day 15 onwards. The use of UV radiation and antibacterial membranes leads to the best results with maximum power densities of approx. 200 mW m−2 while the untreated microbial fuel cell only achieves a maximum power density of approx. 20 mW m−2.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20762607
Volume :
10
Issue :
12
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Microorganisms
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.188720a65b68404fb86601e4ceec3fa0
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10122421