The Effect of Electrode Spacing and Size on the Performance of Soil Microbial Fuel Cells (SMFC)

Im, Seong-Won; Lee, Hye-Jeong; Chung, Jae-Woo; Ahn, Yong-Tae; Im, Seong-Won; Lee, Hye-Jeong; Chung, Jae-Woo; Ahn, Yong-Tae

doi:2014.36.11.758

The Korean text of this paper can be translated into multiple languages on the website of http://jksee.or.kr through Google Translator.

J Korean Soc Environ Eng > Volume 36(11); 2014 > Article

Original Paper

J Korean Soc Environ Eng 2014;36(11): 758-763. doi: https://doi.org/10.4491/KSEE.2014.36.11.758

전극간 거리와 크기가 토양미생물연료전지의 성능에 미치는 영향

임성원, 이혜정, 정재우, 안용태²

¹경남과학기술대학교 환경공학과, 녹색기술연구소
²경남과학기술대학교 에너지공학과

The Effect of Electrode Spacing and Size on the Performance of Soil Microbial Fuel Cells (SMFC)

Seong-Won Im, Hye-Jeong Lee, Jae-Woo Chung, Yong-Tae Ahn²

¹Department of Environmental Engineering, Green Technology Institute (GTI), Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology (GNTECH)
²Department of Energy Engineering, GNTECH

Received: October 31, 2014; Revised: November 12, 2014; Accepted: November 17, 2014. Published online: November 30, 2014.

ABSTRACT

Soil microbial fuel cells (SMFC) have gained a great attention as an eco-friendly technology that can simultaneously generate electricity and treat organic pollutants from the contaminated soil. We evaluated the effect of electrode spacing and size on the performance of SMFC treating soil contaminated with organic pollutants. Maximum power density decreased with increase in electrode distance or decrease in electrode size, likely due to higher internal resistance. The maximum voltage and power density decreased from 326 mV and 19.5 mW/m² with 4 cm of electrode distance to 222 mV and 5.9 mW/m² with 9 cm of electrode distance. In case of electrode size test, the maximum voltage and power density generated was 291 mV, 0.34 mW/m³ when both of anode and cathode area were 64 cm² with 4 cm of electrode distance. The maximum voltage decreased by 19~29% when the anode area decreased to 16 cm² while only 3~12% of voltage decreased with cathode area decrease. The maximum power density decreased by 49~68% with decreasing anode size, and by 29~47% with decreasing cathode size. These results showed that the anode area had more significant effects than the cathode area on the power generation of SMFC which has a high internal resistance due to a coexistence of soil and wastewater in the reactor.

Key Words: Soil Microbial Fuel Cell, Electrode Spacing, Electrode Size, Internal Resistance