微生物电解产氢新技术研究现状与进展

微生物电解产氢是在微生物燃料电池的基础上发展而来的一种新的有潜力的产氢技术。将原有的微生物燃料电池进行适当改装,使其处于厌氧环境中,另外再加一个外加电压,从而使电池的阴极反应变成电子与质子的反应,产生氢气。微生物电解产氢技术的外加电压远低于电解水产氢技术所需的电压,产氢效率也比微生物发酵产氢高,且能将有机物彻底氧化,极大地提高了能源利用率。目前,国外已有研究将该技术应用于城市生活污水、养猪废水等,实现了废水的资源化利用。文章简述了微生物电解产氢的机理,归纳了其系统构成,并结合该技术在微生物、阳极、阴极和膜等方面的发展现状对其应用前景及发展方向进行了探讨。

Current Status and Prospects in Hydrogen Production with Microbial Electrolysis Cells

Producing hydrogen with microbial electrolysis cells is a new technology,which has been developed on the basis of microbial fuel cells. Hydrogen could be generated on cathode from the reaction of electrons and protons while the microbial fuel cell was modified to anaerobic condition and an external voltage was applied. The applied voltage in this technology was lower than that in water electrolysis and hydrogen production rate was higher than fermentative,furthermore,the organics could be completely oxidized. At present,the technology has been used for domestic wastewater and swine wastewater at abroad. The principles and system constitutions of microbial electrolysis cells were summarized. Combined with its current status on microbes,anode,cathode and membrane,the perspectives of this technology were also discussed.