Nickel based catalysts for highly efficient {H2} evolution from wastewater in microbial electrolysis cells

By Lu, Lu; Hou, Dianxun; Fang, Yanfen; Huang, Yingping; Ren, Zhiyong Jason
Published in Electrochimica Acta NULL 2016

Abstract

Abstract The high cost and over-potential loss of the cathode are primary bottlenecks of the microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) technology for efficient {H2} production from renewable biomass. In this study, novel NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) electrocatalyst was directly grown on nickel foam for {H2} evolution from actual brewery wastewater and its fermentation effluent. The new cathode demonstrated comparable high {H2} rate (2.01-2.12 m3-H2/m3/d) with benchmark Pt catalyst but showed higher {H2} recovery (76-80% vs. 55-66%), which is twice as much as the rate obtained from popular stainless steel mesh and bare nickel foam cathodes. More interestingly, different from the Pt-coated cathode, the NiFe LDH/Ni foam cathode demonstrated very stable and even increased performance overtime when operated in real wastewater. The one-step in situ growth of catalyst on nickel substrate eliminates polymer binders and current collector, which greatly simplifies the manufacture process and reduces costs in large scale systems.

Read » Back