A Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) can simultaneously generate electricity and treat wastewater, but currently used materials and catalysts lead to high operational costs. This work investigates the use of sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK) as an alternative proton-exchange membrane (PEM) in a microbial fuel cell.
The Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a new device for simultaneous electricity production and wastewater treatment.
However, a major concern of this technique is the high operational cost caused by the use of Nafion® 117 as the proton-exchange membrane (PEM) and platinum (Pt) as a cathode catalyst for oxygen reduction.
Here researchers in Malaysia report on the alternative use of sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK) as a PEM in a microbial fuel cell.
The results indicate that even though the power production of the MFC with SPEEK (77.3 mW/m2) was lower than with Nafion 117 (106.7 mW/m2), its lower price means that it is more cost-effective.
The reported cost evaluation suggests that the use of SPEEK in power production is about twice as cost-effective as Nafion 117.
Furthermore, its chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal (88%) is higher than Nafion 117 (76%). Thus, given substantial increases in its power density, SPEEK may be a promising PEM in industrial-scale MFCs.
