Effects of Three Types of Separator Membranes on the Microbial Fuel Cells Performance

DOI

10.2991/meic-15.2015.364How to use a DOI?

Keywords

power density; internal resistance; membranes; membrane fouling; microbial fuel cells (MFC)

Abstract

Separator membrane in microbial fuel cell (MFC) is one of the main structures and could significantly affect the performance and the cost of MFCs. Proton exchange membranes (PEMs) are typically used in two-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to separate the anode and cathode chambers while to allow protons transferring from anode to the cathode. Three types of separator membranes (Proton Exchange Membrane, MH; 0.22 m Synthetic Fabric Membrane, M0.22; 0.015 m Track-Etch Membrane, M0.015) were used in microbial fuel cell (MFC) to investigate their effect on MFC performance in this study. Membrane internal resistance, membrane biofouling and oxygen diffusion were analyzed. Results from imaging analysis coupled with FTIR, SEM and EDX demonstrated that the fouling layer attached on membranes consisted of microorganisms encased in extracellular polymers and inorganic salt precipitations. M0.22 had a best maximum power density among three kinds of membranes, and the cost of M0.22 is the lowest. Therefore, M0.22 might be a promising membrane to be used in MFC.

Copyright

© 2015, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Songhe Zhang
AU  - Yuxin Hui
AU  - Bing Han
PY  - 2015/04
DA  - 2015/04
TI  - Effects of Three Types of Separator Membranes on the Microbial Fuel Cells Performance
BT  - Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Mechatronics, Electronic, Industrial and Control Engineering
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1592
EP  - 1596
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/meic-15.2015.364
DO  - 10.2991/meic-15.2015.364
ID  - Zhang2015/04
ER  -