Gelatin as a promising printable feedstock for microbial fuel cells (MFC)

Abstract

Article typeFull length article Abstract Abstract 12The Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is an energy transducer technology that can directly produce 13 electricity from bacterial oxidation of organic matter. MFCs consist of two reaction chambers 14 (anode and cathode) separated by a semipermeable membrane. This study describes the 15 work carried out towards the optimization of critical MFC components, with potential 3D 16 fabricated materials. The response of the optimized fuel cells, which were fed with soft 17 materials such as gelatin, alginate and Nafion™, is also reported. The optimized 18 components were the membrane and the cathode electrode. A traditional Nafion membrane 19 was substituted with a custom made terracotta sheet and the electrode used was a single 20 sheet of carbon veil coated with an activated carbon paste. The results showed that among 21 the soft materials tested within the anodic chamber, gelatin performed the best; it also 22 revealed that even after a 10-day starvation period gelatin demonstrated better longevity. 23These results show that MFCs have the potential to be 3D-printed monolithically using the 24 EVOBOT platform. 25

Developing 3D-Printable Cathode Electrode for Monolithically Printed Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs)

“…Recently it has attracted a lot of interest as an eco-friendly binder for both anodic and cathodic electrodes in the lithium ion (Li-ion) battery industry [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. The properties of alginate have been discussed in the literature in relation to using alginate as a printable carbon energy feedstock for MFCs [ 24 ]. In this experiment, the focus was to investigate whether it could be used as a biodegradable binder in MFC electrodes in an attempt to move away from employing the toxic PTFE binder.…”

“…Three triplicates of single chamber analytical cuboid type MFCs were assembled for this experiment as previously described [24]. The capacity of the anodic chamber was 25 mL.…”

Towards monolithically printed Mfcs: Development of a 3d-printable membrane electrode assembly (mea)

“…The latter was kilned at a temperature of 1070°C prior to use, to allow the structural bonding of the clay and ensure durability, whereas the other two were dried overnight at room temperature. All three membranes were prepared using the same process as previously described [37] and the thickness of the tested membranes was consistent for all the custom made membranes (2.5mm). The total surface area of the membranes was 25 cm 2 .…”

Architectural engineering of bioelectrochemical systems from the perspective of polymeric membrane separators: A comprehensive update on recent progress and future prospects

“…Relevant estimations for various materials can be found in the paper of Dhar and Lee [15] and it can be drawn that further efforts have to be invested to attain the reduction of costs [18]. In this aspects, apart from artificially designed and synthetized polymers, naturally-occurring polymers and relatively cheap materials such as cotton fabric combined with PVA-PVDF [189], gelatin and alginate [190], agar [191], rubber [192], biodegradable bag [193], cellulose-derivative [121], carrageenan [194], ceramics [68,[195][196][197][198][199], Jcloth (a macroporous filter) [200] have been also employed as membranes/separators with various degrees of success in BES and hence, may present a path in the R&D of membranes/separators for cost reduction purposes.…”