Microbial community optimization for electricity generation in Microbial Fuel Cells
نویسندگان
چکیده
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a type of fuel cells that use bacteria as biocatalyst to oxidize an organic substrate to release electrons, which can be harvested in an external circuit to produce electric energy. This technology hold the potential to help overcome energetic problems and at the same time treat waste water more efficiently than the current employed techniques. Despite all this potential, process and reactor design optimization are still necessary to apply the MFC technology in real situations. This study focused into optimize the microbial community and MFC performance, by testing three different inoculum sources, and afterwards analyze the effect of external resistance and substrate concentration in biofilm formation and MFC performance. Results indicate that lake sediment is the best inoculum source, with higher power densities (955 mW.m) and CE (30% and 23% with acetate and xylose, respectively). Furthermore, biofilms formed with this inoculum source showed greater enrichment in G. sulfurreducens. The 200 Ω resistance showed the best overall performances both in terms of biofilm formation (CE: 61%; COD removal: 55%) and MFC performance (Power density: 1 W.m). The substrate concentration was concluded to have no effect in biofilm and MFC performance, being only relevant to define the cycle’s duration. It’s then possible to conclude that inoculum source plays a major role in microbial community development and MFC performance. Moreover, they can be further improved by adjusting the external resistance, which optimization showed to be higher with lower resistances values.
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