title: Electricity generation from macroalgae Enteromorpha prolifera hydrolysates using an alkaline fuel cell.
abstract: The goal of this work was to develop a method for the direct power generation using macroalgae Enteromorpha prolifera. The process conditions for the saccharification of macroalgae were optimized and a type of alkaline fuel cell contained no precious metal catalysts was developed. Under optimum conditions (170°C and 2% hydrochloric acid for 45min), dilute acid hydrolysis of the homogenized plants yielded 272.25g reducing sugar/kg dry algal biomass. The maximum power density reached 3.81W/m2under the condition of 3M KOH and 18.15g/L reducing sugar in hydrolysate, higher than any other reported algae-fed fuel cells. This study represents the first report on direct electricity generation from macroalgae using alkaline fuel cells, suggesting that there is great potential for the production of renewable energy using marine biomass.
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Lab. of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Susu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Lab. of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; School of Marine Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China. Electronic address: lxh@tju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xianhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Lab. of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; School of Marine Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin 300384, PR China. Electronic address: zpp@tjau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Pingping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D056804:Biofuels / Q000382:microbiology*; D018533:Biomass; D004560:Electricity; D012624:Seaweed / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels
keywords: Alkaline fuel cell; Electricity generation; Enteromorpha prolifera; Hydrolysate