A novel tubular microbial electrolysis cell for high rate hydrogen production

作者：Guo Kun; Prevoreau Antonin; Rabaey Korneel^*

来源：Journal of Power Sources, 2017, 356: 484-490.

DOI：10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.03.029

• Microbial electrolysis cells
• Tubular reactor
• Stainless steel felt
• Reactor design
• Hydrogen production

Practical application of microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for hydrogen production requires scalable reactors with low internal resistance, high current density, and high hydrogen recovery. This work reports a liter scale tubular MEC approaching these requirements. The tubular cell components (a platinum-coated titanium mesh cathode, an anion exchange membrane, and a pleated stainless steel felt anode) were arranged in a concentric configuration. The reactor had a low internal resistance (0.325 +/- 0, 19.5 m Omega m(2)) due to the high conductivity of the electrodes, a compact reactor configuration, and proper mixing. With acetate as electron donor, the MEC achieved a volumetric current density of 654 +/- 22 mA L-1 (projected current density, 1.09 +/- 0.04 mA cm(-2)) and a volumetric hydrogen production rate of 7.10 +/- 0.01 L L-1 d(-1) at an applied voltage of 1 V. The reactor also showed high hydrogen recovery (similar to 100%), high hydrogen purity (>98%), and excellent operational stability during the 3 weeks of operation. These results demonstrated that high hydrogen production rate could be achieved on larger scale MEC and this tubular MEC holds great potential for scaling up.

• 出版日期2017-6-15