Performance of sulfonated polystyrene–ethylene–butylene–polystyrene membrane in microbial fuel cell for bioelectricity production

Proton exchange membranes (PEMs) are an essential component for studying microbial fuel cells (MFCs), in spite of certain limitations and high operational cost. Present study reports the performance of a sulfonated polystyrene–ethylene–butylene–polystyrene (SPSEBS) membrane for application in MFCs. SPSEBS produces 106.9% higher power density and low internal resistance than Nafion 117® in a single chamber MFC (SCMFC). The oxygen mass transfer coefficient (KO) is one order lesser in SPSEBS than in Nafion 117 thereby reducing substrate loss while increasing coulombic efficiency (CE). SPSEBS maintains a low pH gradient between the anode and cathode resulting in high performance. The change in the solution conductivities for Nafion is also much greater than that of SPSEBS. The results of this study indicate that SPSEBS could be a suitable PEM for improving the efficiency of MFCs.

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► We demonstrate the use of SPSEBS membrane as alternate for the Nafion® 117.
► Enhanced power production observed in SPSEBS.
► Low oxygen diffusion property, resulted in high columbic efficiency.
► SPSEBS could be used by the MFC to overcome the drawbacks of Nafion® 117.