Investigation of proton exchange membrane microbial fuel cells performance

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a novel kind of fuel cells, it can convert chemical energy from organic pollutant to bioelectricity. In this paper, proton exchange membrane microbial fuel cell (PEMMFC)and salt bridge microbial fuel cell(SBMFC)were compared to examine open circuit voltage, volt-ampere characteristics and coulombic efficiency. Influence of environmental temperature on open circuit voltage of these two MFCs was analyzed. The results show that maximum open circuit voltage of PEMFC is higher than that of SBMFC; performance of PEMMFC is better than that of SBMFC; the coulombic efficiency of PEMFC is higher 36.36% than that of SBMFC. The results are very helpful to understand microbial fuel cells working principle and to increase microbial fuel cell performance.