Simultaneous Congo red decolorization and electricity generation in air-cathode single-chamber microbial fuel cell with different microfiltration, ultrafiltration and proton exchange membranes.
Different microfiltration membrane (MFM), proton exchange membrane (PEM) and ultrafiltration membranes (UFMs) with different molecular cutoff weights of 1K (UFM-1K), 5K (UFM-5K) and 10K (UFM-10K) were incorporated into air-cathode single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) which were explored for simultaneous azo dye decolorization and electricity generation to investigate the effect of membrane on the performance of the MFC. Batch test results showed that the MFC with an UFM-1K produced the highest power density of 324 mW/m(2) coupled with an enhanced coulombic efficiency compared to MFM. The MFC with UMF-10K achieved the fastest decolorization rate (4.77 mg/L h), followed by MFM (3.61 mg/L h), UFM-5K (2.38 mg/L h), UFM-1K (2.02 mg/Lh) and PEM (1.72 mg/Lh). These results demonstrated the possibility of using various membranes in the system described here, and showed that UFM-1K was the best one based on the consideration of both cost and performance.
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration Area, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China. houbin566@163.com
Bin
B
Hou
Jian
J
Sun
Yong-you
YY
Hu
D000388:Air; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D003116:Color; D003224:Congo Red / Q000737:chemistry*; D004058:Diffusion; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011522:Protons; D014462:Ultrafiltration / Q000379:methods*
D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011522:Protons; D003224:Congo Red