Characteristics of a single chamber microbial fuel cell equipped with a low cost membrane

The aims of this research were: (i) to develop and test a new, low cost, organic membrane (LCM) in an air-cathode, single chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC), and (ii) to compare its characteristics with those of an MFC equipped with a Nafion (R) 117 membrane (NF). The internal resistances (R-int) were 112 and 110 Omega using LCM and NF, respectively, whereas the maximum volumetric powers (P-V,P-max) were 2146 and 14,246 mW/m(3) for LCM and NF, respectively. The relatively low value of R-int of the MFC equipped with LCM was encouraging. Furthermore, the R-int of the NF-equipped MFC was of the same order. P-V,P-max delivered with LCM was 15% of that with NF. However, the cost ratio LCM/NF was very low, ($14/m(2))/($1733/m(2)) similar to 0.8%. These results point out to a trade-off between sacrificing some power output of the cell (85%) but achieving outstanding savings on membrane costs (99.2%). Copyright (c) 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.