Microbial Fuel Cell

A N OPT I ON FOR WAT ER T R EATMENT AN D E LEC T RICI TY G E NER ATION

Gabrielle Prudencio Alves
Student ID: 20156612
Federal University of Ceara (UFC)
Renewable Energy Engineering Undergraduate Student

Contents
1.Introduction

2.Brief history
3.As an Energy resource
4.As a wastewater treatment option
4.1 Dairy Industry
4.2 Petroleum Industry
5.Proton Exchange Membrane
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Nafion
5.3 S-OPBI
5.4 SPEEK
6. Conclusion

1.Introduction
Converts the energy stored in chemical bonds in
organic compounds to electrical energy.
Operates at ambient temperature
Anodic chamber: Microbes + Substrates
Advantages: Electricity production and waste-water
treatment
Disadvantages: Low power density and high installation
costs
Applications: Electricity generation, biohydrogen
producer, wastewater treatment and biosensor.

Z. Du, H. Li, T. Gu
A state of the art review on microbial fuel cells: a promising technology for waste water
treatment and bioenergy
Biotechnol. Adv., 25 (2007), pp. 464482

Cathodic reaction: O2 + 4e + 4H+ 2H2O

2.Brief history
1910

Earliest concept of a MFC by Potter. Electrical energy produced from living cultures of
Escherichia Coli and Saccharomyces with Platinum electrodes.

1980s

Discovered mediators that could get electrons from within the non-conductive membrane of
microbial species (toxic and instable)

1999~early
2000s

Some microbes were found to transfer electrons directly to anode ( stable and yield a high
Columbic efficiency)

Z. Du, H. Li, T. Gu
A state of the art review on microbial fuel cells: a promising technology for waste water
treatment and bioenergy
Biotechnol. Adv., 25 (2007), pp. 464482

3.As an Energy Resource

Overall reaction is the same in all cases
MFC has less energy losses

Standard free energy and net energy yield are in kJ/mol glucose.
V.G. Gude
Wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cells-an overview
Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 122,(2016) pages 287-307

4.As a wastewater treatment option

4.1.Dairy Industry
#

CODr(
%)

Power
(W/m3)

CE (%)

References

91

2.7

17

Elakkiya and Matheswaran (2013)

91

20.2

26

Mardanpour et al. (2012)

81

1.157

Mathuriya and Sharma (2010)

55

5.1

24

A.Faria et al (2016)

Anaerobic anode produces less energy than aerobic anode

The energy generated is still minimum

E. Elakkiya, M. Matheswaran
Comparison of anodic metabolisms in bioelectricity production during treatment of dairy
wastewater in Microbial Fuel Cell
Bioresources Technol., 136 (2013), pp. 407412

A.Faria, L. Goncalves, J.M. Peixoto, L. Peixoto, A. G. Brito, G.Martins

Resources recovery in the dairy industry: bioelectricity production using a continuous
microbial fuel cell
Journal of Cleaner Production, (2016)

4.As a wastewater treatment option

4.2. Petroleum Refinery
Remove petroleum pollutants
Recover energy from Petroleum Refinery Wastewater (PRW)
Packing materials influence the electricity generation performance, treatment efficiency and
degradation mechanism of petroleum pollutants.

MFC I (non packed ), MFC II (GAC-packed), MFC III (GG-Packed)

Xuan Guo, Yali Zhan, Chunmao Chen, Bin Cai, Yu Wang, Shaohui Guo.
Influence of packing material characteristics on the performance of microbial fuel cells using petroleum refinery wastewater as fuel
Renewable Energy, Volume 87, Pages 437-444 (2016)

5.Proton exchange membrane

5.1 Introduction
Function:

Ideal Characteristics:

Transportation of Protons

High water uptake

Separator

Proton conductivity in an aqueous environment

Good thermal, mechanical and dimensional stability
Resistant to biofouling

Easily synthesizable and economical for large-scale

applications

S. Singha, T.Jana,J.A. Modestra, A.N.Kumar, S.V. Mohan

Highly efficient sulfonated polybenzimidazole as a proton exchange membrane for microbial fuel cells
Journal of Power Sources , Volume 317, Pages 143-152 (2016)

5.Proton Exchange Membrane

5.2. Nafion
Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Good Proton Conductivity

Oxygen leakage from cathode to anode
Substrate losses
Cation Transport and accumulation rather than
proton
Biofouling of the membrane
High cost

K.J. Chae, M. Choi, F.F. Ajayi, W. Park, I.S. Chang, I.S. Kim
Mass transport through a proton exchange membrane (nafion) in microbial fuel cells
Energy Fuels, 22 (2008)

5.Proton Exchange Membrane

5.3. Sulfonated Oxy-Polybenzimidazole
Sulfonated Oxy-Polybenzimidazole (S-OPBI)

S. Singha, T.Jana,J.A. Modestra, A.N.Kumar, S.V. Mohan

Highly efficient sulfonated polybenzimidazole as a proton exchange membrane for microbial fuel cells
Journal of Power Sources , Volume 317, Pages 143-152 (2016)

5.Proton Exchange Membrane

5.4. Sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK)

Mostafa Ghasemi,Wan Ramli Wan Daud, Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Yaghoob Jafari,Manal Ismail, Alireza Mayahi, Jamal Othman
Simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity generation by microbial fuel cell: Performance comparison and cost investigation of using Nafion 117
and SPEEK as separators
Desalination, Volume 325, Pages 1-6 (2013)

6.Conclusion
Good option for water treatment
Improvements needed for producing energy
Costs can be reduced when substituting the PEM