Journal
ENERGY SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
Volume 9, Issue 12, Pages 2342-2353Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ese3.988
Keywords
microbial fuel cell technology; novel kaolin earthenware; polybenzimidazole; proton conductor; proton exchange membrane
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Funding
- Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI) Malaysia [03-01-02-SF0985]
- Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia [GUP-2015-036, GUP-2018-012]
- Kementerian Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi [FRGS/1/2014/TK06/UKM/03/1]
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The novel macroporous kaolin earthenware coated with polybenzimidazole (NKE-PBI) membrane showed improved proton conduction activity and comparable power performance with Nafion 117 in a dual-chambered MFC, making it a potential separator for commercialization in scaled-up MFC systems.
A proton exchange membrane (PEM) is one of the most critical and expensive components in a dual-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) that separates the anode and cathode chambers. The novel macroporous kaolin earthenware coated with polybenzimidazole (NKE-PBI) fabricated in this study could become an alternative to PEM membranes. Briefly, PBI powder was dissolved in dimethylacetamide. Thereafter, NKE was fabricated at different porosities (10%, 20%, and 30%) using different starch powder volumes, which acted as pore-forming agents. The NKE-PBI with 30 vol% starch powder content produced the highest power output of 2450 +/- 25 mW m(-2) (10.50 A m(-2)) and internal resistance of 71 +/- 19 omega under batch mode operation. The MFC-PEM reactor generated the lowest power output at the highest internal resistance of up to 1300 +/- 15 mW m(-2) (3.7 A m(-2)) and 313 +/- 16 omega, respectively. In this study, the nonselective porous NKE coated with PBI membranes improved proton conduction activity and displayed comparable power performance with that of Nafion 117 in a dual-chambered MFC. Therefore, a porous earthenware membrane coated with a proton conductor could become a potential separator in a scaled-up MFC system for commercialization.
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