标题: Balancing Water Dissociation and Current Densities To Enable Sustainable Hydrogen Production with Bipolar Membranes in Microbial Electrolysis Cells

作者: Xu Wang, Ruggero Rossi, Zhifei Yan, Wulin Yang, Michael A. Hickner, Thomas E. Mallouk, Bruce E. Logan

来源出版物：Environmental Science & Technology  卷：53 期：24  页: 14761-14768 出版年:DEC 2019

摘要: Hydrogen production using two-chamber microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) is usually adversely impacted by a rapid rise in catholyte pH because of proton consumption for the hydrogen evolution reaction. While using a bipolar membrane (BPM) will maintain a more constant electrolyte pH, the large voltage loss across this membrane reduces performance. To overcome these limitations, we used an acidic catholyte to compensate for the potential loss incurred by using a BPM. A hydrogen production rate of 1.2 ± 0.7 L-H2/L/d (jmax = 10 ± 0.4 A/m2) was obtained using a Pt cathode and BPM with a pH difference (ΔpH = 6.1) between the two chambers. This production rate was 2.8 times greater than that of a conventional MEC with an anion exchange membrane (AEM, 0.43 ± 0.1 L-H2/L/d, jmax = 6.5 ± 0.3 A/m2). The catholyte pH gradually increased to 11 ± 0.3 over 9 days using the BPM and Pt/C, which decreased current production (jmax = 2.5 ± 0.3 A/m2). However, this performance was much better than that obtained using an AEM as the catholyte pH increased to 10 ± 0.4 after just one day. The use of an activated carbon cathode with the BPM enabled stable performance over a longer period of 12 days, although it reduced the hydrogen production rate (0.45 ± 0.1 L-H2/L/d).

作者关键词: Hydrogen, Electrical properties, Electrodes, Membranes Catalysts

地址:

[Xu Wang, Ruggero Rossi, Zhifei Yan, Wulin Yang, Michael A. Hickner, Thomas E. Mallouk, Bruce E. Logan]Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, State College, Pennsylvania 16802, United States

[[Xu Wang]School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University, No. 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, P. R. China

通讯作者地址:

[Xu Wang] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, State College, Pennsylvania 16802, United States;

School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Sustainable Resource and Energy, Wuhan University, No. 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, P. R. China

[Bruce E. Logan] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, State College, Pennsylvania 16802, United States

电子邮件地址: xu.wang@whu.edu.cn; blogan@psu.edu.

影响因子：7.149