Direct utilization of fermentation products in an alcohol fuel cell

Mackie, David M.; Liu, Sanchao; Benyamin, Marcus; Ganguli, Rahul; Sumner, James J.

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.01.077

Cited by 14 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…1c and d). For all membranes other than RO the peak power continues to decrease, even with new membranes, which confirms fouling of the MEA from peptones (i.e., hydrolyzed proteins) in the fermentation broth (Mackie et al, 2013). However, when RO membranes are used, no decrease in power is observed, suggesting minimal fouling.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Previously, direct utilization of products from microbial metabolism in DEFCs to generate $900 lW cm À2 in a single step was reported (Mackie et al, 2013). Although coulombic efficiencies of these biofuel cells are limited, as conversion of sugars was limited to acetic acid, the higher power densities may enable practical applications and an exciting step forward.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Diffusion-driven proton exchange membrane fuel cell for converting fermenting biomass to electricity

Malati

Mehrotra

Minoofar

et al. 2015

Bioresource Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffusion-driven proton exchange membrane fuel cell for converting fermenting biomass to electricity

Malati

Mehrotra

Minoofar

et al. 2015

Bioresource Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…At low partial pressures, the current density increases nearly linearly with ethanol concentration, consistent with a pseudo-first-order reaction with respect to ethanol (rate constant 36 min −1 ). At higher ethanol partial pressures, the current density peaks near 3.5 mmHg at a value of 13.6 mA/cm 2 , slightly higher than the peak current density obtained when these same FCs are run on liquid ethanol–water mixtures at the same temperatures and voltage [39, 43, 48]. At higher ethanol partial pressures, there is a large run-to-run variability, along with an apparent slight decrease in current density.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These FCs were chosen to be consistent with our previous studies, in which we ran them in the conventional manner, as liquid-fed direct ethanol FCs [39, 48]. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) has Pt–Ru/C as the anode catalyst, Pt/C as the cathode catalyst, and a Nafion ® 117 proton-exchange membrane.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vapor-fed bio-hybrid fuel cell

Benyamin

Jahnke

Mackie

2017

Biotechnol Biofuels

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundConcentration and purification of ethanol and other biofuels from fermentations are energy-intensive processes, with amplified costs at smaller scales. To circumvent the need for these processes, and to potentially reduce transportation costs as well, we have previously investigated bio-hybrid fuel cells (FCs), in which a fermentation and FC are closely coupled. However, long-term operation requires strictly preventing the fermentation and FC from harming each other. We introduce here the concept of the vapor-fed bio-hybrid FC as a means of continuously extracting power from ongoing fermentations at ambient conditions. By bubbling a carrier gas (N2) through a yeast fermentation and then through a direct ethanol FC, we protect the FC anode from the catalyst poisons in the fermentation (which are non-volatile), and also protect the yeast from harmful FC products (notably acetic acid) and from build-up of ethanol.ResultsSince vapor-fed direct ethanol FCs at ambient conditions have never been systematically characterized (in contrast to vapor-fed direct methanol FCs), we first assess the effects on output power and conversion efficiency of ethanol concentration, vapor flow rate, and FC voltage. The results fit a continuous stirred-tank reactor model. Over a wide range of ethanol partial pressures (2–8 mmHg), power densities are comparable to those for liquid-fed direct ethanol FCs at the same temperature, with power densities >2 mW/cm2 obtained. We then demonstrate the continuous operation of a vapor-fed bio-hybrid FC with fermentation for 5 months, with no indication of performance degradation due to poisoning (of either the FC or the fermentation). It is further shown that the system is stable, recovering quickly from disturbances or from interruptions in maintenance.ConclusionsThe vapor-fed bio-hybrid FC enables extraction of power from dilute bio-ethanol streams without costly concentration and purification steps. The concept should be scalable to both large and small operations and should be generalizable to other biofuels and waste-to-energy systems.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-017-0755-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

“…For example, the DAFC performance may be adversely affected by many components of common fermentation media, including many salts and peptides. Additionally, room-temperature DAFCs generally do not oxidize ethanol completely to carbon dioxide, but also produce large quantities of acetic acid 13 . Even at low concentrations, acetic acid is toxic to many microorganisms including yeast, and this presents a challenge to operating the fuel cell while the fermentation continues to produce ethanol.…”

Section: H20mentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance study of sugar-yeast-ethanol bio-hybrid fuel cells

Jahnke

Mackie

Benyamin

et al. 2015

Energy Harvesting and Storage: Materials, Devices, and Applications VI

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Renewable alternatives to fossil hydrocarbons for energy generation are of general interest for a variety of political, economic, environmental, and practical reasons. In particular, energy from biomass has many advantages, including safety, sustainability, and the ability to be scavenged from native ecosystems or from waste streams. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can take advantage of microorganism metabolism to efficiently use sugar and other biomolecules as fuel, but are limited by low power densities. In contrast, direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) take advantage of proton exchange membranes (PEMs) to generate electricity from alcohols at much higher power densities. Here, we investigate a novel bio-hybrid fuel cell design prepared using commercial off-the-shelf DAFCs. In the bio-hybrid fuel cells, biomass such as sugar is fermented by yeast to ethanol, which can be used to fuel a DAFC. A separation membrane between the fermentation and the DAFC is used to purify the fermentate while avoiding any parasitic power losses. However, shifting the DAFCs from pure alcohol-water solutions to filtered fermented media introduces complications related to how the starting materials, fermentation byproducts, and DAFC waste products affect both the fermentation and the long-term DAFC performance. This study examines the impact of separation membrane pore size, fermentation/fuel cell byproducts, alcohol and salt concentrations, and load resistance on fuel cell performance. Under optimized conditions, the performance obtained is comparable to that of a similar DAFC run with a pure alcohol-water mixture. Additionally, the modified DAFC can provide useable amounts of power for weeks.

show abstract

Direct utilization of fermentation products in an alcohol fuel cell

Cited by 14 publications

References 17 publications

Diffusion-driven proton exchange membrane fuel cell for converting fermenting biomass to electricity

Diffusion-driven proton exchange membrane fuel cell for converting fermenting biomass to electricity

Vapor-fed bio-hybrid fuel cell

Performance study of sugar-yeast-ethanol bio-hybrid fuel cells

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About