Simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity generation by microbial fuel cell: Performance comparison and cost investigation of using Nafion 117 and SPEEK as separators

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a new device for simultaneous electricity production and wastewater treatment. The major concern of this technique is the high operational cost that is caused by Nafion 117 used as a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) and Pt as a cathode catalyst for oxygen reduction. Sulfon...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Desalination 2013-09, Vol.325, p.1-6
Main Authors: Ghasemi, Mostafa, Daud, Wan Ramli Wan, Ismail, Ahmad Fauzi, Jafari, Yaghoob, Ismail, Manal, Mayahi, Alireza, Othman, Jamal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Biochemical fuel cells
Catalysis
Catalytic reactions
Chemical engineering
chemical oxygen demand
Chemistry
cost effectiveness
Cost efficiency analysis
Density
desalination
Devices
Electric power generation
Electricity
electrodes
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Equipments for energy generation and conversion: thermal, electrical, mechanical energy, etc
Ethers
Exact sciences and technology
Fuel cells
General and physical chemistry
General purification processes
microbial fuel cells
Microorganisms
Nafion 117
oxygen
Oxygen demand
PEM
Pollution
Power production
prices
Reactors
separators
SPEEK
Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry
Wastewater treatment
Wastewaters
Water treatment and pollution
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a new device for simultaneous electricity production and wastewater treatment. The major concern of this technique is the high operational cost that is caused by Nafion 117 used as a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) and Pt as a cathode catalyst for oxygen reduction. Sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK) was used as a PEM in MFC for this study. The results indicate that even though the power production of MFC with SPEEK (77.3mW·m−2) was lower than Nafion 117 (106.7mW·m−2), it is more cost effective, due to its lower price. Our cost evaluation suggests that the use of SPEEK in power production is about two times more cost effective than that of Nafion 117. Furthermore, its chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal (88%) is higher than Nafion 117 (76%); and thus, SPEEK, given substantial increases in power density may be a promising PEM in MFCs at an industrial scale. •Applying different methods for wastewater treatment•Production of 77.3mW·m−2 electricity and 88% COD removal by MFC working with SPEEK•Economical comparison between SPEEK and Nafion 117
ISSN:0011-9164
1873-4464
DOI:10.1016/j.desal.2013.06.013