Scholarly record

INTENSIFICATION OF WORK OF BIOFUEL CELLS OF HETEROGENEOUS METAL COMPLEX CATALYSTS "CATAN"

Daria Kochetkova

Abstract

At present, the problem of unceasing growth of electricity consumption against the background of limited natural resources is extremely acute. The task of waste disposal is also highly relevant. One approach to solving these issues may be the use of microorganisms-electrogenes in biofuel cells (BFC). Microorganisms are able to dispose of wastewater with simultaneous release of electricity in BFC. However, despite all its advantages, today BFC is overwhelmingly inferior to traditional methods of producing electricity. One of the reasons for this situation is electrical losses due to cathode "overvoltage". The cause of overvoltage losses in braking the oxygen reduction reaction at the BFC cathode. Platinum does a good job with this task. But its use is hampered by two points. Platinum is a very expensive metal. The share of platinum can account for more than 60% of the cost of finished BFC. In addition, it is easily poisoned by metabolic products of microorganisms, in particular sulfur-containing substances. Actively looking for cheap catalysts. This work was devoted to the study of the influence of the heterogeneous catalyst Catan 525 (JSC SPA Cataliz, Russia) on the electrical characteristics of BFC, as well as on wastewater treatment processes. Experiments have shown that the introduction of 0.5 g / l of catalyst into the cathode chamber increased the power of BFC by 3 times, 1 g / l ? by 4, and 5 g / l ? by 9 times. The presence of 0.1 g / l of catalyst did not affect the power of BFC. With the addition of 5 g / l of catalyst, an increase in the conductivity of catholyte by 40% was noted; lower concentrations practically did not change the conductivity. Thus, it was shown that the Catan 525 catalyst intensified the operation of BFC.

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