Suitability of granular carbon as an anode material for sediment microbial fuel cells

Arends, Jan; Blondeel, Evelyne; Tennison, S.R.; Boon, Nico; Verstraete, Willy

doi:10.1007/s11368-012-0537-6

Cited by 39 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…Waste‐water MFCs usually use carbon felt or fiber as anode material, but these have a negative impact on the environmental performance of the system as well . Since the plant is growing with its roots into the GAC and electrons are produced close to the roots, contact between root and GAC is considered important for total power output . Reduction of use of GAC implicates that more roots will need to be located in less material.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electricity production with living plants on a green roof: environmental performance of the plant‐microbial fuel cell

Helder

Chen

Harst

et al. 2013

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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Several renewable and (claimed) sustainable energy sources have been introduced into the market during the last century in an attempt to battle pollution from fossil fuels. Especially biomass energy technologies have been under debate for their sustainability. A new biomass energy technology was introduced in 2008: the plant‐microbial fuel cell (P‐MFC). In this system, electricity can be generated with living plants and thus bioelectricity and biomass production can be combined on the same surface. A green roof producing electricity with a P‐MFC could be an interesting combination. P‐MFC technology is nearing implementation in the market and therefore we assessed the environmental performance of the system with an early stage life cycle assessment (LCA). The environmental performance of the P‐MFC is currently worse than that of conventional electricity production technologies. This is mainly due to the limited power output of the P‐MFC and the materials presently used in the P‐MFC. Granular activated carbon (anode material), gold wires (current collectors), and Teflon‐coated copper wires (connecting anode and cathode) have the largest impact on environmental performance. Use of these materials needs to be reduced or avoided and alternatives need to be sought. Increasing power output and deriving co‐products from the P‐MFC will increase environmental performance of the P‐MFC. At this stage it is too early to compare the P‐MFC with other (renewable) energy technologies since the P‐MFC is still under development. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electricity production with living plants on a green roof: environmental performance of the plant‐microbial fuel cell

Helder

Chen

Harst

et al. 2013

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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“…This result was comparable with sediment-MFC from previous study, which used a mixture of 50% granular carbon (1-5 mm) with sand as an anode material fed with 20 mM sodium acetate as electron donor. After 3 weeks of incubation, the sediment-MFC reached an average current density of 25 ± 7.74 mA/m 2 with a maximum of 37.9 mA/m 2 [80]. It should be noted that without the presence of plants and solely fed with sodium acetate, the mixture of 33% granular carbon with sand sediment-MFC only generated maximum of 5 mA/m 2 of current density after 2 week operation [80].…”

Section: Mixture Of Marine Sediment and Activated Carbon Generating Ementioning

confidence: 93%

“…After 3 weeks of incubation, the sediment-MFC reached an average current density of 25 ± 7.74 mA/m 2 with a maximum of 37.9 mA/m 2 [80]. It should be noted that without the presence of plants and solely fed with sodium acetate, the mixture of 33% granular carbon with sand sediment-MFC only generated maximum of 5 mA/m 2 of current density after 2 week operation [80]. The cathode performance of the studied systems may have affected the MS100 but did not likely limit the bioanode of the other Plant-MFCs.…”

Section: Mixture Of Marine Sediment and Activated Carbon Generating Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Activated Carbon Mixed with Marine Sediment is Suitable as Bioanode Material for Spartina anglica Sediment/Plant Microbial Fuel Cell: Plant Growth, Electricity Generation, and Spatial Microbial Community Diversity

Sudirjo

Buisman

Strik

2019

Water

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Wetlands cover a significant part of the world's land surface area. Wetlands are permanently or temporarily inundated with water and rich in nutrients. Therefore, wetlands equipped with Plant-Microbial Fuel Cells (Plant-MFC) can provide a new source of electricity by converting organic matter with the help of electrochemically active bacteria. In addition, sediments provide a source of electron donors to generate electricity from available (organic) matters. Eight lab-wetlands systems in the shape of flat-plate Plant-MFC were constructed. Here, four wetland compositions with activated carbon and/or marine sediment functioning as anodes were investigated for their suitability as a bioanode in a Plant-MFC system. Results show that Spartina anglica grew in all of the Plant-MFCs, although the growth was less fertile in the 100% activated carbon (AC100) Plant-MFC. Based on long-term performance (2 weeks) under 1000 ohm external load, the 33% activated carbon (AC33) Plant-MFC outperformed the other Plant-MFCs in terms of current density (16.1 mA/m 2 plant growth area) and power density (1.04 mW/m 2 plant growth area). Results also show a high diversity of microbial communities dominated by Proteobacteria with 42.5-69.7% relative abundance. Principal Coordinates Analysis shows clear different bacterial communities between 100% marine sediment (MS100) Plant-MFC and AC33 Plant-MFC. This result indicates that the bacterial communities were affected by the anode composition. In addition, small worms (Annelida phylum) were found to live around the plant roots within the anode of the wetland with MS100. These findings show that the mixture of activated carbon and marine sediment are suitable material for bioanodes and could be useful for the application of Plant-MFC in a real wetland. Moreover, the usage of activated carbon could provide an additional function like wetland remediation or restoration, and even coastal protection. 2 of 23 production; carbon fixation and storage; flood mitigation and water storage; water treatment and purification; and habitats for biodiversity. About 5-10% of the world's land surface is covered by wetlands [2]. A recent study reported that the global wetland area is between 15 and 16 million km 2 , in which about 8.9-9.5% is coastal wetlands [3]. Unfortunately, despite their critical role wetlands are facing a serious problem of losses caused by human activities. A study has shown that at least 33% of global wetlands had been lost as of 2009 due to human activities [1]. This loss was comparable to a previous study reporting that between 1970 and 2008, natural wetland declined globally by about 30% [4].Sediment pollution by human activities is a major problem for wetland ecosystems [5]. By nature, wetland sediments are able to remedy themselves from pollutants, such as petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants, due to the presence of diverse microbial communities [6]. However, in some cases such as to control hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs), an in-situ amendment by human interference is applied for ...

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“…For a same material, small granules (0.25 -0.5 mm) give a higher current density than larger granules (1 -5 mm). More, for the same size, granules with a rough surface have a better performance than smooth ones [120]. The main question is:…”

Section: Carbon-based Electrodesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioremediation in Water Environment: Controlled Electro-Stimulation of Organic Matter Self-Purification in Aquatic Environments

Jobin¹,

Namour²

2017

AiM

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This review describes a new means of control and stimulation of microorganisms involved in the bioremediation of sediments and waterlogged soils. This emerging technology is derived from sedimentary microbial fuel cells, and consists in ensuring aerobic respiration of aerobic microbial populations in anaerobic conditions by means of a fixed potential anode in order to evacuate the electrons coming from the microbial respiratory chains. This review describes the conceptual basis of the electro-bioremediation, the material devices used (electrode set-ups and spacing), and finally studies the various devices published since the bench tests until the scarce in-field implementations.

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Suitability of granular carbon as an anode material for sediment microbial fuel cells

Cited by 39 publications

References 25 publications

Electricity production with living plants on a green roof: environmental performance of the plant‐microbial fuel cell

Electricity production with living plants on a green roof: environmental performance of the plant‐microbial fuel cell

Activated Carbon Mixed with Marine Sediment is Suitable as Bioanode Material for Spartina anglica Sediment/Plant Microbial Fuel Cell: Plant Growth, Electricity Generation, and Spatial Microbial Community Diversity

Bioremediation in Water Environment: Controlled Electro-Stimulation of Organic Matter Self-Purification in Aquatic Environments

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