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Published on: December 29, 2013
Insight into the performance discrepancy of GAC and CAC as air-cathode materials in constructed wetland-microbial
Bin Ji1, Yaqian Zhao2, Yang Yang3
1State Key Laboratory of Eco-Hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China; Department of Ecology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, PR China.
Abstract:
Constructed wetland-microbial fuel cell (CW-MFC) has exhibited the performance discrepancy between using granular activated carbon (GAC) and columnar activated carbon (CAC) as air-cathode materials. No doubt, this is linked with electrochemical performance and decontaminants characteristics in the CW-MFC system. To provide insight into this performance discrepancy, three CW-MFCs were designed with different carbon-material to construct varied shapes of air-cathodes. The results showed that the ring-shaped cathode filled with GAC yielded a highest voltage of 458 mV with maximum power density of 13.71 mW m-2 and >90% COD removal in the CW-MFC system. The electrochemical characteristics and the electron transport system activity (ETSA) are the driven force to bring the GAC a better electron transportation and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). This will help elucidating underlying mechanisms of different activated carbon for air-cathode and thus promote its large application.
