Increased Performance of Microbial Fuel Cells Using Granular Activated Carbon Anodes

The objective of this study is to improve Microbial Fuel Cells(MFCs)power output by renovating anode with granular activated carbon(GAC),since anode is one of the key factors for power output improvement,where microorganisms oxidize organic pollutants and generate power.The comparisons of improvement effect were made between conventional MFCs and modified MFCs.The conventional MFCs with carbon cloth anodes(Carbon-MFCs)was used as reference and the other type of MFCs was modified MFCs with GAC anodes(GAC-MFCs).Carbon-MFCs presented voltage output of 300mV and power density of 200mW/m2 after one week acclimation.GAC-MFCs showed voltage output of 100mV after one week acclimation,but its voltage output and power density increased to 380mV and 560mW/m2 after 2000h acclimation,respectively.The large ratio surface area of GAC particles present much room for biofilm growth,which contains large amount of electrogenic bacteria,resulting in a 3.4 times increase in coulombic efficiency.GAC is helpful for the power loss reduction of 38% based on internal resistance reduction.Tests results exhibited that GAC is valid as anode material.