A shorter start-up time and highly negative anode potentials are needed to improve single-chamber air-cathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Using a glass fiber separator reduced the start-up time from 10d to 8d at 20°C, and from 4d to 2d at 30°C, and enhanced coulombic efficiency (CE) from <60% to 89% (20°C) and 87% (30°C). Separators also reduced anode potentials by 20-190mV, charge transfer re...

Background: More than a decade work in preservation of male fertility by spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) transplantation in animal models as well as new discoveries about the nature of human SSCs has prompted an investigation into the possibility of an effective clinicalgrade procedure for isolation and cryopreservation of human testicular cells. Materials and Methods: Clinical-grade reagents, v...

Efficient treatment of domestic wastewater under continuous flow conditions using microbial fuel cells (MFCs) requires hydraulic retention times (HRTs) that are similar to or less than those of conventional methods such as activated sludge. Two MFCs in series were compared at theoretical HRTs of 8.8, 4.4 and 2.2 h using two different brush-electrode MFC configurations: a full brush evenly space...

Exoelectrogenic microorganisms in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) compete with other microorganisms for substrate. In order to understand how this affects removal rates, current generation, and coulombic efficiencies (CEs), substrate removal rates were compared in MFCs fed a single, readily biodegradable compound (acetate) or domestic wastewater (WW). Removal rates based on initial test conditions ...

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology offers sustainable solutions for distributed power systems and energy positive wastewater treatment, but the generation of practically usable power from MFCs remains a major challenge for system scale up and application. Commonly used external resistors will not harvest any usable energy, so energy-harvesting circuits are needed for real world applicatio...

Citation: Hasegawa Y, Futamata H and Tashiro Y (2015) Complexities of cell-to-cell communication through membrane vesicles: implications for selective interaction of membrane vesicles with microbial cells. Front. Microbiol. 6:633. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.00633 Complexities of cell-to-cell communication through membrane vesicles: implications for selective interaction of membrane vesicles with m...

The measurement of electricity generation from an air-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) with a mixed bacteria culture at different pH showed that this MFC could tolerate an initial (feed solution) pH as high as 10. The optimal initial pH was between 8 and 10 with higher current generation compared to lower or higher pH. The bacterial metabolism exhibited a buffer effect and changed the electrol...

In this work, the mechanisms of energy loss in parallel connection of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is explored using two MFC units producing different open circuit voltage (OCV) and current. In open circuit mode, non-Faradaic current flows in low OCV unit, implying energy loss caused by different OCVs in parallelly stacked MFCs. In a stacked MFC in parallel under close circuit mode, it is confir...

The relationship between the diversity of mixed-species microbial consortia and their electrogenic potential in the anodes of microbial fuel cells was examined using different diversity measures as predictors. Identical microbial fuel cells were sampled at multiple time-points. Biofilm and suspension communities were analysed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to calculate the number an...

Encapsulation of whole microbial cells in microtubes for use in bioremediation of pollutants in water systems was the main focus of this investigation. Coelectrospinning of a core polymeric solution with bacterial cells and a shell polymer solution using a spinneret with two coaxial capillaries resulted in microtubes with porous walls. The ability of the microtube's structure to support cell at...