Performance of a greywater cathode in a microbial fuel cell with three ion exchange membranes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Greywater and blackwater treatment is necessary to make sanitation and water reuse possible, and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have emerged as a promising technology for achieving this objective. Ion exchange membranes play a key role in double chamber microbial fuel cell performance, but there are differences of opinion as to which membrane type is better. RESULTS: This project was set up to study the effect of three ion exchange membranes (Nafion® 117, Ultrex™ CMI‐7000 and Ultrex™ AMI‐7001) in MFCs using greywater as catholyte in stacks of three microbial fuel cells each. The results demonstrate that the stacks with cationic membranes (Nafion® 117 and Ultrex™ CMI‐7000) generated higher power (201.50\u2009±\u200921.62 and 178.74\u2009±\u200956.89\u2009mW\u2009m⁻³, respectively) than those with the anionic membrane stack Ultrex™ AMI‐7001 (71.57\u2009±\u20093.46\u2009mW\u2009m⁻³). For the greywater catholyte, a 31% of chemical oxygen demand removal was achieved and proved to be an option as a catholyte in microbial fuel cells for countries that carry out wastewater separation. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained in this study demonstrated that an anion exchange membrane is not a better option for double chamber MFCs. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry