Title: Selection of the best barrier solutions for liquid displacement gas collecting metre to prevent gas solubility in microbial electrolysis cells

Authors: Abudukeremu Kadier; K. Chandrasekhar; Mohd Sahaid Kalil

Addresses: Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, National University of Malaysia (UKM), 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia ' School of Applied Biosciences, Kyungpook National University, 702-701 Daegu, South Korea ' Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, National University of Malaysia (UKM), 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) are a novel technology aiming at producing hydrogen from biomass or wastewater. The collection and preservation of the gas generated in the MECs is the first and most important operation in gas measuring techniques. There are several techniques for the quantitative evaluation of gas production in MECs, such as Owen method, respirometre, and gas bag methods. However, the costs associated with these methods could make MEC technology scale-up expensive and impractical. This work describes evaluation of commonly used biogas measurement techniques and analyses potential errors associated with liquid displacement gas measurement. Inaccuracy mainly due to CO2, and CH4 dilution in displaceable liquids was evaluated by testing solubility of CO2 in 12 different barrier solutions. 95% saturated NaCl (pH 0.5) solution exhibited lower CO2 solubility among the tested solutions. These results indicate that gas production in MECs can be accurately tested using an inexpensive, simple gas metre.

Keywords: hydrogen production; microbial electrolysis cell; MEC; gas metre; liquid displacement method; gas chromatography; GC; barrier solutions; solubility test.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRET.2017.086807

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology, 2017 Vol.8 No.2, pp.93 - 103

Received: 13 Mar 2016
Accepted: 30 Sep 2016

Published online: 28 Sep 2017 *

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