Author(s)

Paata Nikoleishvili^*, Gigla Tsurtsumia, Valentina Kveselava, Giorgi Gorelishvili, Rusudan Kurtanidze, Nana Koiava, Izolda Kakhniashvili, Davit Sharabidze

Rafael Agladze Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Electrochemistry of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.

It was established that application of bipolar membrane in a direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) with H₂O₂ co-generation enabled to keep constant pH in catholyte within 2.5 - 3.2 limits, which allowed us to carry out treatment of water polluted by organic compounds in fuel cell catholyte. Treatment of water was carried out by electro-Fenton and photo-electro-Fenton methods. With the view of efficiency, photo-electro-Fenton method of treatment was the most efficient, which enabled to decrease COD of catholytes containing (in each case) phenol, valsaren, 400 g/L dymethoate (BI-58) and valsaciper from 500 ppm to 30, 11, 9 and 3 ppm, respectively after 180 min treatment. By increasing the catholyte temperature from 20℃ to 40℃ in the same period, phenol COD fell to 5 ppm.

Direct Borohydride Fuel Cell, Bipolar Membrane, Hydrogen Peroxide, Electro-Fenton, Photo-Electro-Fenton, Water Treatment

Nikoleishvili, P. , Tsurtsumia, G. , Kveselava, V. , Gorelishvili, G. , Kurtanidze, R. , Koiava, N. , Kakhniashvili, I. and Sharabidze, D. (2015) Waste Water Treatment in Direct Borohydride Fuel Cell with Bipolar Membrane. Open Journal of Ecology, 5, 22-32. doi: 10.4236/oje.2015.52003.