Electricity Generation Using an Air-Cathode Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell in the Presence and Absence of a Proton Exchange Membrane

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are typically designed as a two-chamber system with the bacteria in the anode chamber separated from the cathode chamber by a polymeric proton exchange membrane (PEM). Most MFCs use aqueous cathodes where water is bubbled with air to provide dissolved oxygen to electrode. To increase energy output and reduce the cost of MFCs, we examined power generation in an air-cathode MFC containing carbon electrodes in the presence and absence of a polymeric proton exchange membrane (PEM). Bacteria present in domestic wastewater were used as the biocatalyst, and glucose and wastewater were tested as substrates. Power density was found to be much greater than typically reported for aqueous-cathode MFCs, reaching a maximum of 262 ( 10 mW/m2 (6.6 ( 0.3 mW/L; liquid volume) using glucose. Removing the PEM increased the maximum power density to 494 ( 21 mW/m2 (12.5 ( 0.5 mW/L). Coulombic efficiency was 40-55% with the PEM and 9-12% with the PEM removed, indicating substantial oxygen diffusion into the anode chamber in the absence of the PEM. Power output increased with glucose concentration according to saturation-type kinetics, with a half saturation constant of 79 mg/L with the PEM-MFC and 103 mg/L in the MFC without a PEM (1000 Ω resistor). Similar results on the effect of the PEM on power density were found using wastewater, where 28 ( 3 mW/m2 (0.7 ( 0.1 mW/L) (28% Coulombic efficiency) was produced with the PEM, and 146 ( 8 mW/m2 (3.7 ( 0.2 mW/L) (20% Coulombic efficiency) was produced when the PEM was removed. The increase in power output when a PEM was removed was attributed to a higher cathode potential as shown by an increase in the open circuit potential. An analysis based on available anode surface area and maximum bacterial growth rates suggests that mediatorless MFCs may have an upper order-of-magnitude limit in power density of 103 mW/m2. A cost-effective approach to achieving power densities in this range will likely require systems that do not contain a polymeric PEM in the MFC and systems based on direct oxygen transfer to a carbon cathode.  Bacteria can be used to catalyze the conversion of organic matter into electricity (1-7). Fuel cells that use bacteria are loosely classified here as two different types: biofuel cells that generate electricity from the addition of artificial electron shuttles (mediators) (8-12) and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that do not require the addition of a mediator (5, 7, 13-15). It has recently been shown that certain metal-reducing bacteria, belonging primarily to the family Geobacteraceae, can directly transfer electrons to electrodes using electrochemically active redox enzymes such as cytochromes on their outer membrane (16-18). These so-called mediatorless MFCs are considered to have more commercial application potential than biofuel cells because the mediators used in biofuel cells are expensive and toxic to the microorganisms (7). MFCs typically produce power at a density of less than 50 mW/m2 (normalized to anode projected surface area) (7, 13, 19). In a MFC, two electrodes (anode and cathode) are each placed in water in two chambers joined by a proton exchange membrane (PEM). The main disadvantage of a twochamber MFC is that the solution cathode must be aerated to provide oxygen to the cathode. It is known that the power output of an MFC can be improved by increasing the efficiency of the cathode. For example, power is increased by adding ferricyanide (20) to the cathode chamber. It is possible, however, to design a MFC that does not require that the cathode be placed in water. In hydrogen fuel cells, the cathode is bonded directly to the PEM so that oxygen in the air can directly react at the electrode (21). This technique was successfully used to produce electricity from wastewater in a single chamber MFC by Liu et al. (15). Park and Zeikus (20) produced a maximum of 788 mW/m2 using a unique system with a Mn4+ graphite anode and a direct-air Fe3+ graphite cathode (20). Because the power output of MFCs is low relative to other types of fuel cells, reducing their cost is essential if power generation using this technology is to be an economical method of energy production. Most studies have used relatively expensive solid graphite electrodes (7, 19), but graphite-felt (14) and carbon cloth (15) can also be used. The use of air-driven cathodes can reduce MFC costs because passive oxygen transfer to the cathode using air does not require energy intensive air sparging of the water. Finally, PEMs such as Nafion are quite expensive. We wondered if this material was essential for power production in an MFC. We therefore designed and constructed a carbon-cloth, aircathode fuel cell to try to increase power density to levels not previously achieved with aqueous cathode systems. To study the effect of the PEM on power production, we compared power density for glucose and wastewater feeds with the system in the presence and absence of a polymeric PEM.