Home > Articles > Published articles > Obtaining microbial communities with exoelectrogenic activity from anaerobic sludge using a simplified procedure |
Date: | 2014 |
Abstract: | BACKGROUND: The microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology transforms the chemical energy present in substrates into electricity. Starting-up these systems, i. e. enriching the anodic community in exoelectrogenic bacteria, is a lengthy process or requires expensive equipment. - RESULTS: An easy and low-cost procedure based on a sediment MFC was developed to select microbial communities with exoelectrogenic activity from the anaerobic sludge of a waste water treatment plant (WWTP). The configuration was based on a simple vessel working as a single chamber MFC with a cathode of stainless steel wool in the liquid surface and a submerged graphite fibre brush as anode. In 30 days of operation, a biofilm with remarkable exoelectrogenic activity was grown on the anode of the MFC. This graphite fibre brush anode was able to supply 0. 9Wm-2 when working in an air-cathode MFC (AC-MFC) for 45 days. - CONCLUSION:The procedure presented was demonstrated to be a successful, low-costandlow-maintenance procedure to obtain exoelectrogenic activity and had performances comparable with other more costly and complex inoculation procedures. The Sed-MFC does not require a potentiostat, external aeration, stirring, membranes or an enriched inoculum in the exoelectrogenic biomass. |
Grants: | Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIOSOS Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2009/SGR-815 |
Rights: | Tots els drets reservats. |
Language: | Anglès |
Document: | Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar |
Subject: | Anaerobic sludge ; Exoelectrogenic bacteria ; Microbial fuel cell (MFC) ; Sediment MFC ; Stainless steel cathode |
Published in: | Journal of chemical technology and biotechnology, Vol. 89, issue 11 (Nov. 2014) , p. 1727-1732, ISSN 1097-4660 |
Post-print 27 p, 6.0 MB |