TY - JOUR
T1 - Air humidity and water pressure effects on the performance of air-cathode microbial fuel cell cathodes
AU - Ahn, Yongtae
AU - Zhang, Fang
AU - Logan, Bruce E.
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-I1-003-13
Acknowledgements: The research reported here was supported by the Siemens Corporation and Award KUS-I1-003-13 from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.
PY - 2014/2
Y1 - 2014/2
N2 - To better understand how air cathode performance is affected by air humidification, microbial fuel cells were operated under different humidity conditions or water pressure conditions. Maximum power density decreased from 1130 ± 30 mW m-2 with dry air to 980 ± 80 mW m -2 with water-saturated air. When the cathode was exposed to higher water pressures by placing the cathode in a horizontal position, with the cathode oriented so it was on the reactor bottom, power was reduced for both with dry (1030 ± 130 mW m-2) and water-saturated (390 ± 190 mW m-2) air. Decreased performance was partly due to water flooding of the catalyst, which would hinder oxygen diffusion to the catalyst. However, drying used cathodes did not improve performance in electrochemical tests. Soaking the cathode in a weak acid solution, but not deionized water, mostly restored performance (960 ± 60 mW m-2), suggesting that there was salt precipitation in the cathode that was enhanced by higher relative humidity or water pressure. These results showed that cathode performance could be adversely affected by both flooding and the subsequent salt precipitation, and therefore control of air humidity and water pressure may need to be considered for long-term MFC operation. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
AB - To better understand how air cathode performance is affected by air humidification, microbial fuel cells were operated under different humidity conditions or water pressure conditions. Maximum power density decreased from 1130 ± 30 mW m-2 with dry air to 980 ± 80 mW m -2 with water-saturated air. When the cathode was exposed to higher water pressures by placing the cathode in a horizontal position, with the cathode oriented so it was on the reactor bottom, power was reduced for both with dry (1030 ± 130 mW m-2) and water-saturated (390 ± 190 mW m-2) air. Decreased performance was partly due to water flooding of the catalyst, which would hinder oxygen diffusion to the catalyst. However, drying used cathodes did not improve performance in electrochemical tests. Soaking the cathode in a weak acid solution, but not deionized water, mostly restored performance (960 ± 60 mW m-2), suggesting that there was salt precipitation in the cathode that was enhanced by higher relative humidity or water pressure. These results showed that cathode performance could be adversely affected by both flooding and the subsequent salt precipitation, and therefore control of air humidity and water pressure may need to be considered for long-term MFC operation. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/597480
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378775313014341
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884884781&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.08.084
DO - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.08.084
M3 - Article
SN - 0378-7753
VL - 247
SP - 655
EP - 659
JO - Journal of Power Sources
JF - Journal of Power Sources
ER -