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Sweet Drinks as Fuels for an Alkaline Fuel Cell with Nonprecious Catalysts

Author

Listed:
  • Jiao Wang

    (School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Xiaohui Zhang

    (School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Yang Li

    (School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China)

  • Peng Liu

    (School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China)

  • Xiaochen Chen

    (Fujian Provincial Engineering Research Center of Rural Waste Recycling Technology, College of Environment and Resources, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China)

  • Pingping Zhang

    (College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin 300384, China)

  • Zhiyun Wang

    (School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China)

  • Xianhua Liu

    (School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China)

Abstract

Sugar has the potential to create enough energy to power mobile electronics. Various sugar-powered fuel cells have been reported, however, most of them used pure glucose as substrate and enzymes/noble metals as catalysts. In this work, an alkaline fuel cell with cheap catalysts were constructed, and different sweet drinks were used as fuels for power generation. The influence of different substrates on the electrochemical performance was characterized under the controlled conditions. Our experimental results showed that the fuel cell fueled with carbonated soft drinks had the best performance under the conditions of 99.95 g/L chemical oxygen demand and 3M KOH. The power densities of the fuel cell fueled with different substrates decreased in the order of Pepsi (33.41 W/m 2 ) > Sprite (28.38 W/m 2 ) > apple juice (20.63 W/m 2 ) > Coca (16.31 W/m 2 ) > pear juice (15.31 W/m 2 ) > orange juice (12.75 W/m 2 ), which was consistent with linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis. This is the first report on alkaline fuel cell (AFC) performance using different sweet drinks as substrate. These values are more than 10 times higher than those of reported microbial fuel cells. Our findings demonstrated that sweet drinks fueled alkaline fuel cells can be a promising energy source for low-power electronics.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiao Wang & Xiaohui Zhang & Yang Li & Peng Liu & Xiaochen Chen & Pingping Zhang & Zhiyun Wang & Xianhua Liu, 2021. "Sweet Drinks as Fuels for an Alkaline Fuel Cell with Nonprecious Catalysts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:206-:d:473968
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Irfan, Muhammad & Liu, Xianhua & Li, Shengling & Khan, Izhar Ullah & Li, Yang & Wang, Jiao & Wang, Xin & Du, Xiwen & Wang, Guangyi & Zhang, Pingping, 2020. "High-performance glucose fuel cell with bimetallic Ni–Co composite anchored on reduced graphene oxide as anode catalyst," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1118-1126.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tong Liu, 2022. "Glucose Fuel Cells and Membranes: A Brief Overview and Literature Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.

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