Performance Comparison of Different Cathode Strategies on Air-Cathode Microbial Fuel Cells: Coal Fly Ash as a Cathode Catalyst

Abstract

The effect of different cathode strategies (mullite/MnO2, Plexiglas/Gore-Tex/MnO2, mullite/coal fly ash, mullite/biochar, mullite/activated carbon) on the performance of air-cathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs) was investigated. The highest maximum power output was observed using MnO2 catalyst pasted on Gore-Tex cloth (7.7 mW/m3), yet the highest coulombic efficiencies (CEs) were achieved using MnO2 (CE 23.5 ± 2.7%) and coal fly ash (CE 20 ± 3.3%) pasted on ceramic. The results showed that the utilization of coal fly ash and biochar as catalysts in MFC technology can be a sustainable and cost-effective solution.

Keywords

• microbial fuel cell
• fly ash
• biochar
• MnO₂
• activated carbon
• ceramic