A New Design Improves Performance of a Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell

作者：Vazquez Larios A L; Solorza Feria O; Vazquez Huerta G; Esparza Garcia F; Rios Leal E; Rinderknecht Seijas N; Poggi Varaldo H M^*

来源：Journal of New Materials for Electrochemical Systems, 2010, 13(3): 219-226.

• microbial fuel cell
• batch tests
• electricity production
• internal resistance
• leachate
• ratio surface area to volume
• solid waste
• sandwich electrode

A new design of MFC (MFC-A) whose main features were the assemblage or sandwich' arrangement of the anode-PEM-cathode and the extended surface area of electrodes (higher electrode surface to cell volume ratio, xi) exhibited a performance significantly superior to that of a similar cell (MFC-B, standard cell) where the electrodes were separated. The characterization experiments showed that the new design lead to a significant 70% reduction of cell internal resistance (R(int)) compared to the standard cell. During the batch operation of the cells loaded with a model extract typical of hydrogenogenic fermentation of organic solid wastes and a sulphate-reducing. inoculum, the maximum, open circuit potentials were 0.5 and 0.3 V whereas the average voltages were 0.21 y 0.18 V for MFC-A and MFC-B, respectively. Maximum volumetric power P(V) and anode density power P(An) of the MFC-A were superior to those of the MFC-B by factors of 13.2 and 8.4, respectively. The experimental improvement factor was almost double of the expected (algebraic) factor 6.5. The P(V) of the MFC-A (922 mW/m(3)) was in the middle to high side of the range of P(V) reported in the literature whereas P(An) was in the low range of published results (38.4 mW/m(2)). Finally, this work points out to the usefulness of the approach of increasing x and reducing R(int) for improving MFC performance.

• 出版日期2010-7