Digestate derived porous biochar through thermochemical nitrogen self-doping as an efficient cathode catalyst for microbial fuel cells

Shiteng Tan, Zhenghui Zhao, Kai Zhang, Bingdong Zhang, Qianqian Yin, Yue Zhang and Ruikun Wang

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 247, issue C

Abstract: Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a promising technology for sustainable energy production using renewable resources. The development of low-cost and efficient cathode catalysts is an effective way to promote the practical application of MFC. This study proposes a hydrothermal process combined with pyrolysis activation method to convert digestate into nitrogen-rich porous biochar catalysts. The nitrogen in the raw material is effectively embedded into the carbon skeleton during the hydrothermal process, increasing the number of active sites. The three-dimensional porous structure of the material promotes the transport and diffusion of reactants in the catalyst. The results show that the catalyst (HT-PC-KOH) with hydrothermal followed by KOH activation had the highest nitrogen retention rate and excellent pore structure. The maximum power density of the MFC loaded with HT-PC-KOH is 1814 mW/m2, which represents 84 % of the power density of Pt/C. This work provides a new method for converting biomass into an oxygen reduction catalyst and makes a significant contribution to the efficient production of renewable energy from MFC.

Keywords: Digestate; Hydrothermal carbonization; Microbial fuel cell; Cathode catalyst; Nitrogen doping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125006950
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:renene:v:247:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125006950

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123033

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

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