Durability and regeneration of activated carbon air-cathodes in longterm operated microbial fuel cells

Enren Zhang^a,*, Feng Wang^a, Qingling Yu^a, Keith Scott^b, Xu Wang^c, Guowang Diao^a

a School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou City 225002, China

b School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, United Kingdom

c School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China

*Corresponding author. Email: babyphotomail@qq.com, erzhang@yzu.edu.cn (E. Zhang)

Abstract

The performance of activated carbon catalyst in air-cathodes in microbial fuel cells was investigated over one year. A maximum power of 1722 mW m^-2was produced within the initial one-month microbial fuel cell operation. The air-cathodes produced a maximum power >1200 mW m^-2within six months, but gradually became a limiting factor for the power output in prolonged microbial fuel cell operation. The maximum power decreased by 55% when microbial fuel cells were operated over one year due to deterioration in activated carbon air-cathodes. While salt/biofilm removal from cathodes experiencing one-year operation increased a limiting performance enhancement in cathodes, a washing-drying pressing procedure could restore the cathode performance to its original levels, although the performance restoration was temporary. Durable cathodes could be regenerated by re-pressing activated carbon catalyst, recovered from one year deteriorated air-cathodes, with new gas diffusion layer, resulting in ~1800 mW m^-2of maximum power production. The present study indicated that activated carbon was an effective catalyst in microbial fuel cell cathodes, and could be recovered for reuse in long-term operated microbial fuel cells by simple methods.

Journal of Power Sources 360 (2017) 21-27. IF= 6.395

文章链接:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.05.119