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Experimental Evaluation of Membrane-less Microbial Fuel Cell

Rasouli, Fatemeh | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 44222 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Kariminia, Hamid Reza
  7. Abstract:
  8. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has attracted a great attention in the recent years due to its advantage of simultaneous energy generation and pollution removal. However, utilization of MFC technologies a challenging issue because of the low energy output and high expenses. Generally, using ion exchange membrane in MFC contributes to a large proportion of the construction costs. Without using a membrane, oxygen intrudes to the anode chamber which will inhibit the anode reaction and decreases the coulombic efficiency. As a solution, using less expensive membranes can facilitate the commercialization of MFC technology.
    In this study, soil cylinder and earthen plate were examined as low cost membranes in dual-chamber microbial fuel cell for the production of electricity and treatment of dairy wastewater and their performance was compared to a cation exchange membrane. The maximum power density at the COD of 400 mg/L in the MFC with soil as membrane was 2.5 mW/m2, which was equal to that of the cation exchange membrane and 25% more than that when earthen plate was used. The coulombic efficiency for soil, earthen plate and cation exchange membrane was 1.86%, 0.83% and 0.53%, respectively. The COD removal efficiency for all MFCs was more than 84%.
    The results of the experiments suggested that the performance of soil MFC was more appropriate compared to the other two membranes tested. Therefore, soil can be used as a low cost alternative for cation exchange membrane in microbial fuel cells
  9. Keywords:
  10. Microbial Fuel Cell ; Power Density ; Soil Membrane ; Earthen Plate Membrane ; Cation Exchange Membrane

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