Wang Zejie, Lim Bongsu
a Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Qingdao , People's Republic of China.
b Department of Environmental Engineering , Daejeon University , Daejeon , Republic of Korea.
Environ Technol. 2017 Apr;38(8):979-984. doi: 10.1080/09593330.2016.1215353. Epub 2016 Aug 9.
Separator is important to prevent bio-contamination of the catalyst layer of air-diffusion cathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Mixed cellulose ester filter (MCEF) was examined as a separator for an air-cathode MFC in the present study. The MCEF-MFC produced a maximum power density of 780.7 ± 18.7 mW/m, which was comparable to 770.9 ± 35.9 mW/m of MFC with Nafion membrane (NFM) as a separator. Long-term examination demonstrated a more stable performance of the MCEF-MFC than NFM-MFC. After 25 cycles, the maximum voltage of the MCEF-MFC decreased by only 1.3% from 425.1 ± 4.3 mV (initial 5 cycles) to 419.5 ± 2.3 mV (last 5 cycles). However, it was decreased by 9.1% from 424.8 ± 5.7 to 386 ± 2.5 mV for the NFM-MFC. The coulombic efficiency (CE) of the MCEF-MFC did not change (from 3.11 ± 0.09% to 3.13 ± 0.02%), while it decreased by 9.12% from 3.18 ± 0.04% to 2.89 ± 0.02% for the NFM-MFC. The MCEF separator was with less biofouling than the NFM separator over 60 days' operation, which might be the reason for the more table long-term performance of the MCEF-MFC. The results demonstrated that MCEF was feasible as a separator to set up good-performing and cost-effective air-diffusion cathode MFC.
隔膜对于防止空气扩散阴极微生物燃料电池（MFC）的催化剂层受到生物污染至关重要。在本研究中，对混合纤维素酯滤膜（MCEF）作为空气阴极MFC的隔膜进行了考察。以MCEF为隔膜的MFC产生的最大功率密度为780.7±18.7 mW/m，与以Nafion膜（NFM）为隔膜的MFC的770.9±35.9 mW/m相当。长期测试表明，MCEF-MFC的性能比NFM-MFC更稳定。经过25个循环后，MCEF-MFC的最大电压仅从425.1±4.3 mV（初始5个循环）下降到419.5±2.3 mV（最后5个循环），降幅为1.3%。然而，NFM-MFC的最大电压从424.8±5.7 mV下降到386±2.5 mV，降幅为9.1%。MCEF-MFC的库仑效率（CE）没有变化（从3.11±0.09%变为3.13±0.02%），而NFM-MFC的CE从3.18±0.04%下降到2.89±0.02%，降幅为9.12%。在60天的运行过程中，MCEF隔膜比NFM隔膜的生物污染更少，这可能是MCEF-MFC具有更稳定长期性能的原因。结果表明，MCEF作为隔膜对于构建性能良好且具有成本效益的空气扩散阴极MFC是可行的。
