Preparation Of Cation Exchange Membrane And Application In Microbial Fuel Cell

Environmental pollution and energy shortage are more and more serious. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) attracted researchers’attention because it could generate energy and treat wastewater. MFC is an equipment which uses active microbe to degrade organic substrates (pollutants) in wastewater, at the same time gets available energy, such as electricity or hydrogen. But high cost and low output power of MFC restricted the application of MFC. Thus, how to improve the output power of MFC is one of the most important aspects.We studied the effects of cation exchange membrane and operation conditions on the performance of MFC. Sulfonated poly (aryl ether sulfone) (SPAES) and sulfonated polyimides (SPI) membranes had good proton conductivity and mechanical properties, and were applied in MFC. The results showed:during the short-term running of MFC, the performance of MFC was affected by the ion exchange capacity (IEC) of membrane. Higher IEC had higher proton conductivity, and higher output power, this was mainly affected by the proton conductivity of membrane and the adhesion of microbe on the anode. During the long-term running, the output power was affected by the proton conductivity, the active microbe and the fouling of membranes. Higher IEC, means higher sulfonic acid group, had higher hydrophilic and biocompatibility, which leaded easier fouling of membranes. Comparing the performance of the MFC with SPAES, SPI and commercial cation exchange membranes (CEM), the MFC with SPAES and SPI membrane had better performance than with CEM.Also we found the concentration of electron acceptor, the anodic surface area, stainless steel and anodic volume affected the performance of MFC, and the MFC with 50mM K3Fe(CN)6,60cm2 anodic surface area and H-stype membrane had the higher power density.The stainless steel would be reacted and corrupted, and the corrosion could be toxic to the microbe, leading descend of power density.Choose better performance of membrane and optimal operating conditions can effectively increase the output power, and accelerate the practical application of MFC.