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Improved performance of a passive air breathing flat‐plate microbial fuel cell
Author(s) -
Kazemi Sona,
Fatih Khalid,
Mohseni Madjid
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.22147
Subject(s) - anode , power density , materials science , electrode , graphite , cathode , substrate (aquarium) , microbial fuel cell , layer (electronics) , nitric acid , composite material , analytical chemistry (journal) , optics , chemistry , power (physics) , chromatography , physics , oceanography , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , geology
This study aims to investigate the effect of the graphite felt (GF) substrate surface treatment, the GF active surface area, and the anode chamber depth on the performance of the passive air breathing flat‐plate microbial fuel cell (FPMFC) configuration. Three passive air breathing FPMFCs (depth of anode chamber: 2 mm, 4 mm, and 8 mm) were developed and operated using 1, 2, and 3 packed layers of three‐dimensional (3D) graphite felt anodes, respectively, with similar cross sectional (geometric) surface area as the cathode and the membrane. The surface of the GF substrate was treated by soaking in a hot solution of nitric acid prior to inoculation. The 2 mm FPMFC generated a peak power density superior to that previously reported for the same configuration with no GF treatment. The peak power density in the 8 mm and 4 mm FPMFCs with 3 and 2 layers of GF increased by 118 % and 48 %, respectively, compared to the 2 mm FPMFC with 1 layer of GF. By using only 1 layer of GF, the peak power density showed no significant variation with the electrode spacing.