The Influence of pH Spitting on the Internal Resistance in Microbial Fuel Cells

Autor: Songhe Zhang, Bing Han, Yuxin Hui
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Mechatronics, Electronic, Industrial and Control Engineering.
DOI: 10.2991/meic-15.2015.363
Popis: Membrane separator in microbial fuel cell (MFCs) is one of the main factors that could significantly affect the performance of MFC. Proton exchange membranes (PEMs) are typically used in two-chamber microbial fuel cells to separate the anode and cathode chambers while to allow the transfer of protons from anode to the cathode. However, protons will accumulate in the anode chamber, and therefore and the pH balance will be broken if the MFC works for a long time. In this study, effects of two types of separator membranes (Proton Exchange Membrane; 0.45μm Synthetic Fabric Membrane) on the pH spitting and MFC performance were investigated. Membrane internal resistance, membrane biofouling and oxygen diffusion were also analyzed. The fouling layer attached on membranes consisted of microorganisms was demonstrated from imaging analysis coupled with SEM. We found that pH splitting might influence MFC internal resistance more than biofouling. This was attributed to the proton transfer process, which was influenced by cathode pH value. Keywords-component; internal resistance; pH spitting; biofouling; membrane; microbial fuel cells (MFC).
Databáze: OpenAIRE