Nickel powder blended activated carbon cathodes for hydrogen production in microbial electrolysis cells |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Environmental and Sustainable Engineering, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, United States;2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 231Q Sackett Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States;1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China;2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Taiyuan College, Taiyuan 030032, China;1. The National Engineering Research Center for Biotechnology, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China;2. Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA;3. College of Material Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China;1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India;2. Lightweight Metallic Materials, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute, Bhopal, 462026, India;3. Center for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India;1. LEQUiA, Institute of the Environment, University of Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain;2. Molecular Microbial Ecology Group, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain |
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| Abstract: | Although pure Ni catalysts can achieve a hydrogen production rate similar to Pt in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), a reduction in the amount of Ni used is needed to reduce the cost. In this study, nickel powder (pNi) was blended with activated carbon (AC) to reduce the mass of Ni used, while improving catalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by increasing the active surface area. Ni powder blended AC cathodes (AC-pNi) were fabricated at different nickel powder loadings (4.8, 19, 46 mg/cm2 with AC and 77 mg/cm2 without AC as control). AC-pNi4.8 (Ni loading: 4.8 mg/cm2) produced higher hydrogen production rates (0.38 ± 0.04 L-H2/L-d) than pNi77 (0.28 ± 0.02 L-H2/L-d) with a 16 times less Ni loading. Cathodic hydrogen recovery of using the AC-pNi4.8 (98 ± 5%) was also higher than pNi77 (82 ± 4%), indicating catalytic activities were improved by AC blending. Nickel dissolution into the catholyte after completion of each cycle was negligible for AC-pNi4.8 (<0.2 mg/L), while Ni dissolution was detected for pNi77 (5–10 mg/L). These results indicate that AC blending with Ni powder can improve hydrogen production in MECs while minimizing the amount of Ni in the cathode. |
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| Keywords: | Activated carbon Non-precious metal catalysts Microbial electrolysis cell Hydrogen evolution reaction Fermentation effluent Nickel powder |
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