Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment (한국물환경학회지)

Korean Society on Water Environment (한국물환경학회)
권호 표지

Characteristics of Power Generation and Organic Matter Removal in Air-Cathode MFC with respect to Microbial Concentration

미생물 농도에 따르는 Air-Cathode MFC의 전력발생과 유기물질제거 특성

  • Kim, Doyoung (Department of Environmental Engineering, Daejeon University) ;
  • Lim, Bongsu (Department of Environmental Engineering, Daejeon University) ;
  • Choi, Chansoo (Department of Applied Chemistry, Daejeon University) ;
  • Kim, Daehyun (Department of Environmental Engineering, Daejeon University)
  • Published : 2012.11.30
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Abstract

In order to improve applicability of a microbial fuel cell the laboratory-scaled study has been performed by adopting an air-cathode MFC system with high concentrated anaerobic slugies in this study. The concentrations of microbes are grouped into three types, Type A (TS 1.7%), Type B (TS 1.1%) and Type C (TS 0.51%). The open circuit voltage $(V_{oc})$ characteristics showed that the medium microbes concentration of 1.10% (Type B) kept a constant voltage of 1.0 V for 150 hours, which showed the longest time among three types (Type A and Type C). The discharge charge curves for a closed circuit with $500 \Omega$ also showed that Type B generated a stable discharge voltage of 0.8 V for a longer time as in the open circuit voltage case. This could be explained by the relatively large amount of the attached microbes. Under the $V_{oc}$condition the COD removal efficiency of Type B was found to be low for a long time, but those of Type A and C were found to be high for a short period of time. Therefore, the suspended microbes could decrease the coulombic efficiency. It was concluded that the high $V_{oc}$ was caused by low COD and the $V_{oc}$ became low after the COD removal. The COD reduction resulted in an unstable and low working voltage. From the polarization characteristics Type A was found to show the highest power density of $193\;mW/m^2$ with a fill factor of 0.127 due to the relatively high remaining COD even after the MFC reaction.

Keywords

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