A completely anoxic microbial fuel cell using a photo-biocathode for cathodic carbon dioxide reduction

Xiaoxin Cao; Xia Huang; Peng Liang; Nico Boon; Mingzhi Fan; Lin Zhang; Xiaoyuan Zhang

doi:10.1039/B901069F

A completely anoxic microbial fuel cell using a photo-biocathode for cathodic carbon dioxide reduction

Xiaoxin Cao,^a Xia Huang,*^a Peng Liang,^a Nico Boon,^b Mingzhi Fan,^a Lin Zhang^a and Xiaoyuan Zhang^a

* Corresponding authors

^a State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R.China
E-mail: xhuang@tsinghua.edu.cn
Fax: +86 10 62771472
Tel: +86 10 62772324

^b Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Gent University, Coupure Links 653, Gent, Belgium

Abstract

Typical microbial fuel cells (MFCs) rely on precious metals for reduction of oxygen at the cathode, but recently MFCs have been developed that use biocathodes for power generation with alternate electron acceptors. It is shown here that with illumination it is possible to develop a biocathode that uses dissolved carbon dioxide (bicarbonate) as the acceptor. During acclimation, the cathode was set at a potential of 0.242 V (vs.SHE) using a potentiostat. After approximately one month of acclimation, a current of 1 mA was sustained. Bicarbonate was reduced in stoichiometric agreement with current generation, with 0.28 ± 0.02 moles of bicarbonate reduced per mole of electrons. When this biocathode was used in a two-bottle MFC, a power density of 750 mW m⁻² was produced. These results demonstrate that MFCs can be used to fix carbon dioxide as well as produce electricity.

Supplementary files

Publication details

The article was received on 19 Jan 2009, accepted on 11 Feb 2009 and first published on 23 Feb 2009

Article type: Communication

DOI: 10.1039/B901069F

Citation: Energy Environ. Sci., 2009,2, 498-501

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A completely anoxic microbial fuel cell using a photo-biocathode for cathodic carbon dioxide reduction

X. Cao, X. Huang, P. Liang, N. Boon, M. Fan, L. Zhang and X. Zhang, Energy Environ. Sci., 2009, 2, 498
DOI: 10.1039/B901069F
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Energy & Environmental Science

A completely anoxic microbial fuel cell using a photo-biocathode for cathodic carbon dioxide reduction

Abstract

Supplementary files

Publication details

A completely anoxic microbial fuel cell using a photo-biocathode for cathodic carbon dioxide reduction

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