Comparative study of bioelectricity generation in a microbial fuel cell using ceramic membranes made of ceramic powder, Kalporgan's soil, and acid leached Kalporgan's soil

• Published in: Energy (Oxford) 2019-07, Vol.178, p.368-377
• Main Authors: Cheraghipoor, Marzieh, Mohebbi-Kalhori, Davod, Noroozifar, Meissam, Maghsoodlou, Malek Taher
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acid leaching; Acidic soils; Bio-electrochemical system; Biochemical fuel cells; Bioelectricity; Calcium; Calcium compounds; Ceramic membrane; Ceramic powders; Ceramics; Comparative studies; Fuel technology; Iron; Kalporgan's soil; Leached soil; Leaching; Liquid phases; Magnesium; Membrane structure; Membrane structures; Membranes; Microorganisms; Phosphoric acid; Porosity; Powder; Proton exchange membrane; Silicon dioxide; Sintering (powder metallurgy); Soil porosity
• ISSN: 0360-5442; 1873-6785
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.04.124

In this study, ceramic membranes were fabricated using commercially available ceramic powder, native Kalporgan's soil and acid-leached native Kalporgan's soil, which were used in MFCs as the membrane, and the performances were compared. The ceramic powder based membrane was applied as an appropriate reference. By leaching the native soil using phosphoric acid, the compounds such as iron, calcium, and magnesium were reduced that is melting during the sintering in a furnace before 900 °C and produced liquid phase was placed within SiO2 networks at the membrane structure, which is referred to sintering phenomena. The porosity of 49.58 ± 0.52% was obtained for the leached membrane while 19.22 ± 0.50% was achieved for non-leached membrane indicating that the leaching process increased the porosity of the membrane significantly and based on the SEM images it reduced the average size of cavities (3.5–0.08 μm). The internal resistance was significantly decreased from 977.36 to 52.81 Ω, and the power density increased remarkably 42 times from 0.48 to 20.18 W/m3, and the maximum current density climbed by 15 times from 102 to 1535 mA/m2. The results of this study revealed that the fabricated ceramic membrane can be an excellent candidate as proton exchange membrane. •Bioelectricity increased in MFC with membrane using acid leached native soil.•Leaching the native soil significantly decreased the internal resistance of MFC.•The Ohmic resistance of ion exchange in membrane eliminated approximately.•An ideal super capacitor was achieved in leached native soil.