Power generation and wastewater treatment using a novel SPEEK nanocomposite membrane in a dual chamber microbial fuel cell Hamid Ilbeygi a , Mostafa Ghasemi b,* , D. Emadzadeh c,d , Ahmad Fauzi Ismail d , S.M.J. Zaidi a , Saad A. Aljlil e , Juhana Jaafar d , Darren Martin a , Samaneh Keshani b a Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia b Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia c Department of Chemical Engineering, Gachsaran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gachsaran, Iran d Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia e National Center for Water Treatment and Desalination Technology, KACST, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia article info Article history: Received 31 May 2014 Received in revised form 3 October 2014 Accepted 6 October 2014 Available online 30 October 2014 Keywords: Microbial fuel cell Power density Proton exchange membrane COD removal abstract In this paper, the performance of two common and two self-fabricated proton exchange membranes were compared. Nafion 112 and Nafion 117, which are two of the most com- mon proton exchange membranes that can be used in all fuel cell systems, were compared to SPEEK and SP/CC/TAP. The results showed that at lower COD such as 2000 mg/l, Nafion 117 has the highest performance in terms of power production and COD removal, while once the COD of wastewater goes up to 5000 mg/l, SP/CC/TAP has approximately the same performance as Nafion 117. The membranes were characterized by FESEM, while the de- gree of sulfonation was measured by NMR. The oxidation activity of microorganisms was measure by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Also, the attachment of bacteria onto the anode electrode was observed by SEM, which showed that different bacteria from the media with a mixed culture inoculum had attached to the anode electrode. Copyright © 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Climate changes and environmental pollution have become global issues that have currently motivated researchers to find alternative sources of energy to reduce the reliance on non- renewable fossil fuels [1]. Nowadays, many researchers believe that non-renewable energy (fossil energy) can be replaced by fuel cell systems as an alternative source of en- ergy, due to their low pollution and environmental impact. A * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ60 3 89118588; fax: þ60 3 89215064. E-mail addresses: mostafag@eng.ukm.my, mostafghasemi@gmail.com (M. Ghasemi). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 40 (2015) 477 e487 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.10.026 0360-3199/Copyright © 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.