Electricity generation and recovery of iron hydroxides using a single chamber fuel cell with iron anode and air-cathode for electrocoagulation

Jung Hwan Kim, I Seul Park and Joo Yang Park

Applied Energy, 2015, vol. 160, issue C, 18-27

Abstract: The use of a single chamber fuel cell with an iron anode and air cathode is a new and innovative concept in electrocoagulation. In this study, we investigated the predominant reactions that contribute to the production of electricity and iron hydroxides in solution. Solutions composed of 0.06M NaHCO3 and 0.05M NaCl at an initial pH of 5 were determined to be optimal for producing the maximum power density of 1997mW/m2 after 24h. Increases in the bicarbonate concentration and ionic strength of the solution induced a corresponding decrease in the anode potential and increase in the cathode potential, which resulted in an increase in the cell potential and power density. Further, increasing the NaHCO3 concentration to 0.1M and the ionic strength of the solution to 0.56M induced an increase in the maximum power densities to 2436 and 4343mW/m2, respectively. Initial pH values of 7.5 and 8.5 in solutions containing 0.06M NaHCO3 and 0.05M NaCl were employed to synthesize magnetic iron hydroxides including magnetite and maghemite. These results suggest that this fuel cell technology can be used not only for electrocoagulation with the removal of contaminants, but also for producing useful products such as electricity and magnetic iron hydroxides. Advances in waste water air-metal fuel cells will enable more efficient power generation and systems suitable for scale-up.

Keywords: Iron–air fuel cell; Electrocoagulation; Iron hydroxides recovery; Waste water treatment; Electricity production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915011113
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:160:y:2015:i:c:p:18-27

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.09.041

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().