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An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater

The cost of materials is one of the biggest barriers for wastewater driven microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Many studies use expensive materials with idealistic wastes. Realistically the choice of an ion selective membrane or nonspecific separators must be made in the context of the cost and performance...

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Autores principales: Christgen, Beate, Scott, Keith, Dolfing, Jan, Head, Ian M., Curtis, Thomas P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548946/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26305330
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136108
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author Christgen, Beate
Scott, Keith
Dolfing, Jan
Head, Ian M.
Curtis, Thomas P.
author_facet Christgen, Beate
Scott, Keith
Dolfing, Jan
Head, Ian M.
Curtis, Thomas P.
author_sort Christgen, Beate
collection PubMed
description The cost of materials is one of the biggest barriers for wastewater driven microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Many studies use expensive materials with idealistic wastes. Realistically the choice of an ion selective membrane or nonspecific separators must be made in the context of the cost and performance of materials available. Fourteen membranes and separators were characterized for durability, oxygen diffusion and ionic resistance to enable informed membrane selection for reactor tests. Subsequently MFCs were operated in a cost efficient reactor design using Nafion, ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) or polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes, a nonspecific separator (Rhinohide), and a no-membrane design with a carbon-paper internal gas diffusion cathode. Peak power densities during polarisation, from MFCs using no-membrane, Nafion and ETFE, reached 67, 61 and 59 mWm(-2), and coulombic efficiencies of 68±11%, 71±12% and 92±6%, respectively. Under 1000Ω, Nafion and ETFE achieved an average power density of 29 mWm(-2) compared to 24 mWm(-2) for the membrane-less reactors. Over a hypothetical lifetime of 10 years the generated energy (1 to 2.5 kWhm(-2)) would not be sufficient to offset the costs of any membrane and separator tested.
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spelling pubmed-45489462015-09-01 An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater Christgen, Beate Scott, Keith Dolfing, Jan Head, Ian M. Curtis, Thomas P. PLoS One Research Article The cost of materials is one of the biggest barriers for wastewater driven microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Many studies use expensive materials with idealistic wastes. Realistically the choice of an ion selective membrane or nonspecific separators must be made in the context of the cost and performance of materials available. Fourteen membranes and separators were characterized for durability, oxygen diffusion and ionic resistance to enable informed membrane selection for reactor tests. Subsequently MFCs were operated in a cost efficient reactor design using Nafion, ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) or polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes, a nonspecific separator (Rhinohide), and a no-membrane design with a carbon-paper internal gas diffusion cathode. Peak power densities during polarisation, from MFCs using no-membrane, Nafion and ETFE, reached 67, 61 and 59 mWm(-2), and coulombic efficiencies of 68±11%, 71±12% and 92±6%, respectively. Under 1000Ω, Nafion and ETFE achieved an average power density of 29 mWm(-2) compared to 24 mWm(-2) for the membrane-less reactors. Over a hypothetical lifetime of 10 years the generated energy (1 to 2.5 kWhm(-2)) would not be sufficient to offset the costs of any membrane and separator tested. Public Library of Science 2015-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4548946/ /pubmed/26305330 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136108 Text en © 2015 Christgen et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Christgen, Beate
Scott, Keith
Dolfing, Jan
Head, Ian M.
Curtis, Thomas P.
An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater
title An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater
title_full An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater
title_fullStr An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater
title_full_unstemmed An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater
title_short An Evaluation of the Performance and Economics of Membranes and Separators in Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Domestic Wastewater
title_sort evaluation of the performance and economics of membranes and separators in single chamber microbial fuel cells treating domestic wastewater
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548946/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26305330
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136108
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