Walter Xavier Alexis, Madrid Elena, Gajda Iwona, Greenman John, Ieropoulos Ioannis
Bristol BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, T-Block, UWE, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK.
Biological, Biomedical and Analytical Sciences, UWE, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK.
J Power Sources. 2022 Feb 1;520:230875. doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2021.230875.
In recent years, bioelectrochemical systems have advanced towards upscaling applications and tested during field trials, primarily for wastewater treatment. Amongst reported trials, two designs of urine-fed microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were tested successfully on a pilot scale as autonomous sanitation systems for decentralised area. These designs, known as ceramic MFCs ( -MFCs) and self-stratifying MFCs ( -MFC), have never been calibrated under similar conditions. Here, the most advanced versions of both designs were assembled and tested under similar feeding conditions. The performance and efficiency were evaluated under different hydraulic retention times (HRT), through chemical oxygen demand measures and polarisation experiments. Results show that -MFCs displayed constant performance independently from the HRT (32.2 ± 3.9 W m) whilst displaying high energy conversion efficiency at longer HRT (NER = 2.092 ± 0.119 KWh.Kg , at 24h HRT). The -MFC showed a correlation between performance and HRT. The highest performance was reached under short HRT (69.7 ± 0.4 W m at 3h HRT), but the energy conversion efficiency was constant independently from the HRT (0.338 ± 0.029 KWh.Kg ). The -MFCs and -MFCs similarly showed the highest volumetric efficiency under long HRT (65h) with NER of 0.747 ± 0.010 KWh.m and 0.825 ± 0.086 KWh.m, respectively. Overall, -MFCs seems more appropriate for longer HRT and -MFCs for shorter HRT.
近年来，生物电化学系统已朝着扩大应用规模的方向发展，并在现场试验中进行了测试，主要用于废水处理。在已报道的试验中，两种尿液供能微生物燃料电池（MFC）设计作为分散区域的自主卫生系统在中试规模上成功进行了测试。这两种设计，即陶瓷MFC（ -MFC）和自分层MFC（ -MFC），从未在类似条件下进行过校准。在此，组装了这两种设计的最先进版本，并在类似的进料条件下进行了测试。通过化学需氧量测量和极化实验，在不同水力停留时间（HRT）下评估了性能和效率。结果表明， -MFC的性能与HRT无关，保持恒定（32.2±3.9 W m），而在较长HRT下显示出高能量转换效率（在24小时HRT时，NER = 2.092±0.119 KWh.Kg ）。 -MFC的性能与HRT之间存在相关性。在短HRT（3小时HRT时为69.7±0.4 W m）下达到最高性能，但能量转换效率与HRT无关，保持恒定（0.338±0.029 KWh.Kg ）。 -MFC和 -MFC在长HRT（65小时）下同样显示出最高的体积效率，NER分别为0.747±0.010 KWh.m和0.825±0.086 KWh.m。总体而言， -MFC似乎更适合较长的HRT，而 -MFC适合较短的HRT。
