Hydrogen and Methane Production Using Synthetic Wastewater from Modified Microbial Fuel Cell (M-MFC)

摘要

A newly designed modified microbial fuel cell (M-MFC) with 1 L of liquid volume used synthetic wastewater as the substrate, containing two different chambers but using the same electrode, can generate power, hydrogen and methane simultaneously. To evaluate the performance of this M-MFC, tests were conducted at different organic loading rates and hydraulic retention times (HRT's). The temperature was controlled with a water bath at 35 ± 1°C, sample was collected everyday, and the output electric signals were online measured using a potentiostat. COD and pH were analyzed according to the standard methods, gas sample was analyzed using a GC-TCD, and gas volume was measured using a bubble meter. Experimental results showed that when operated at a higher loading rate of 10 g/L/day and HRT of 6 days, a higher hydrogen concentration of 20% and a lower power density of 12.8 mW/cm~2 were achieved. On the contrary, when operated at a lower loading rate of 8 g/L/day and HRT of 9 days, a lower hydrogen concentration of 7.5% and a higher power density of 30.1 mW/cm~2 were achieved. However, both COD removal efficiency (95 %) and methane concentration (50.5 %) did not change apparently under different loading rate and HRT.