Transfer from Microorganisms to Electrodes for Green Electricity?

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Electrical energy from CO₂ emissions by direct gas feeding in capacitive cells

This work demonstrates the possibility to harvest electrical power from CO2 emissions by feeding CO2 and air gas directly into a capacitive cell. Hamelers et al. previously showed, that the available mixing energy of CO2 emitted into the air can be converted into electricity, but at high energy costs for gas-sparging in the process. In the present work, electrical power is generated by feeding the gas directly into the capacitive cell. We investigated three different cell designs (namely, “conventional”, “flow-by(wire)”, and “flow-by(flat)”), by changing both electrode and cell geometry. The flow-by(flat), inspired from fuel cell design, showed the best performance thanks to a high membrane potential (≈190 mV), which is the highest value so far reported from CO2 and air. A maximum membrane permselectivity between CO2 and air of 90% was obtained, i.e., almost double of values reported in previous studies. On the contrary, the “conventional” cell design gave poor performance due to non-optimal gas flow in the cell. We highlight the importance of water management and internal electrical resistance, to indicate directions for future developments of the technology.</p

Energy from CO2 using capacitive electrodes – Theoretical outline and calculation of open circuit voltage

Recently, a new technology has been proposed for the utilization of energy from CO2 emissions (Hamelers et al., 2014). The principle consists of controlling the dilution process of CO2–concentrated gas (e.g., exhaust gas) into CO2–dilute gas (e.g., air) thereby extracting a fraction of the released mixing energy. In this paper, we describe the theoretical fundamentals of this technology when using a pair of charge–selective capacitive electrodes. We focus on the behavior of the chemical system consisting of CO2 gas dissolved in water or monoethanolamine solution. The maximum voltage given for the capacitive cell is theoretically calculated, based on the membrane potential. The different aspects that affect this theoretical maximum value are discussed

Electrochemical characterization of a supercapacitor flow cell for power production from salinity gradients

Salinity gradients could be a great source of energy in the future. Capacitive energy extraction based on Donnan Potential (CDP) is a new technique to directly convert this energy into electricity. COP uses a supercapacitor-like device combining ion exchange membranes and capacitive materials to adsorb and desorb ions with the Donnan Potential of the membranes as only driving force. The resulting current can be extracted through an external load. In this study, traditional electrochemical techniques: galvanostatic charge-discharge and cyclic voltammetry were used to investigate intrinsic properties of this open system. This study demonstrates the feasibility to characterize the capacitive behavior of the cell in low concentration (0.5 M). Presence of membranes, as well as the possibility of having the electrolyte flowing through the cell was investigated. In the studied cell, the presence of membranes showed a limitation by the anion exchange membrane at low current densities but no effect at high current densities. The flow rate did not influence the capacitance of the system either

Solvent-Free CO₂ Capture Using Membrane Capacitive Deionization

Capture of CO2, originating from both fossil fuels, such as coal combustion, and from renewables, such as biogas, appears to be one of the greatest technological challenges of this century. In this study, we show that membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) can be used to capture CO2 as bicarbonate and carbonate ions produced from the reaction of CO2 with water. This novel approach allows capturing CO2 at room temperature and atmospheric pressure without the use of chemicals. In this process, the adsorption and desorption of bicarbonate ions from the deionized water solution drive the CO2(g) absorption-desorption from the gas phase. In this work, the effects of the current density and the CO2 partial pressure were studied. We found that between 55 and 75% of the electrical charge of the capacitive electrodes can be directly used to absorb CO2 gas. The energy requirement of such a system was found to be ∼40 kJ mol-1 at 15% CO2 and could be further improved by reducing the ohmic and non-ohmic energy losses of the MCDI cell.</p

Effect of Diffusion and Migration on the Selectivity of a Polymer Inclusion Membrane Containing Dicyclohexano-18-crown-6

Ion transport and selectivity are compared across a polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) containing dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 (DCH18C6, K+ selective) under two driving forces: concentration gradient (diffusion) and electrical potential gradient (migration). The K+ flux is much larger under diffusion (140 mmol cm−2 h−1) than under migration (≈4 mmol cm−2 h−1). The selectivity of NH4 + over K+ is 86.0 for diffusion and 1.0 for migration. The selectivity of Na+ over K+ is 21.4 for diffusion and 1.16 for migration. Migration transport might induce a change in the orientation of DCH18C6 and reduce selectivity. Therefore, it is more favorable to apply diffusion rather than migration

Impact of Wire Geometry in Energy Extraction from Salinity Differences Using Capacitive Technology

Energy extraction based on capacitive Donnan potential (CDP) is a recently suggested technique for sustainable power generation. CDP combines the use of ion-exchange membranes and porous carbon electrodes to convert the Gibbs free energy of mixing sea and river water into electric work. The electrodes geometry has a relevant impact on internal resistance and overall performance in CDP. In this work, we present the first effort to use wire shaped electrodes and its suitability for improving CDP. Analytical evaluation and electrical measurements confirm a strong nonlinear decrease in internal resistance for distances between electrodes smaller than 3 mm. We also demonstrated that we get more power per material invested when compared to traditional flat plate designs. These findings show the advantages of this design for further development of CDP into a mature technology