Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA; Department of Environmental Science, SRM University-AP, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh 522502, India.
Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA.
Bioresour Technol. 2021 Jul;331:125030. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125030. Epub 2021 Mar 27.
Maintaining high current densities is a key challenge in scaling-up microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) reactors. In this study, a novel 10 L MEC reactor with a total electrode surface area greater than 1 m was designed and evaluated to maximize the current density and H recovery. Performances of the reactor suggest that the longitudinal structure with parallel vertical orientation of the electrodes encouraged high fluid mixing and the sheet metal electrode frames provided distributed electrical connection. Results also demonstrated that the electrode pairs located next to reactor walls decreased current density, as did separating the electrodes with separators. High volumetric H production rate of 5.9 L/L/d was achieved at a volumetric current density of 970 A/m (34 A/m). Moreover, the observed current densities of the large reactor were accurately predicted based on the internal resistance analysis of small scale MECs (0.15 L), demonstrating the scalability of the single chamber MEC design.
维持高电流密度是规模化微生物电解池（MEC）反应器的关键挑战。在这项研究中，设计并评估了一种具有大于 1 平方米总电极表面积的新型 10 升 MEC 反应器，以最大限度地提高电流密度和氢气回收率。该反应器的性能表明，采用平行垂直排列电极的纵向结构促进了高流体混合，而金属片电极框架则提供了分布式电气连接。结果还表明，靠近反应器壁的电极对会降低电流密度，用隔板隔开电极也会降低电流密度。在体积电流密度为 970 A/m（34 A/m）的情况下，实现了 5.9 L/L/d 的高体积氢气产率。此外，根据小尺寸 MEC（0.15 L）的内阻分析，准确预测了大型反应器的观测电流密度，证明了单室 MEC 设计的可扩展性。
