The performance of biophotovoltaics (BPVs) having clay separators modified with 10, 15, and 20% of Fuller's earth-material (FEM) to improve the cation exchange capacity was assessed on the basis of wastewater treatment and electrochemical analyses. Among the three variants of clay separators other than the commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM), clay separator modified with 15% of FEM resulted in peak power density (7.87 W/m³) with high organic matter removal (82 ± 3.78%) and Cr (VI) reduction (94 ± 0.85%). FEM provides cationic sites enhancing the proton transfer rate as confirmed from the electrochemical analysis. Membrane characterization also showed high proton transfer coefficient with low membrane resistance in FEM-15%. This first ever study on the utilization of the low-cost 15% FEM clay separator BPV achieved high power outputs and proved its suitability for field-scale applications due to its long-term stability, and thus can be an alternate to the costly polymeric membrane.

在废水处理和电化学分析的基础上，评估了具有用 10、15 和 20% 的富勒地球材料 (FEM) 改性的粘土隔板以提高阳离子交换容量的生物光伏 (BPV) 的性能。在除商用质子交换膜 (PEM) 之外的三种粘土分离器中，用 15% FEM 改性的粘土分离器产生峰值功率密度 (7.87 W/m ³) 具有高有机物去除率 (82 ± 3.78%) 和 Cr (VI) 还原率 (94 ± 0.85%)。正如电化学分析所证实的，FEM 提供了提高质子转移速率的阳离子位点。膜表征还显示 FEM-15% 中的高质子传递系数和低膜电阻。这是首次对低成本 15% FEM 粘土分离器 BPV 的利用进行的研究实现了高功率输出，并证明其由于其长期稳定性而适用于现场规模应用，因此可以替代昂贵的聚合物膜.