Obtaining microbial communities with exoelectrogenic activity from anaerobic sludge using a simplified procedure

Abstract

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 0.9 W m ‐2 when working in an air‐cathode MFC ( AC‐MFC ) for 45 days. CONCLUSION The procedure presented was demonstrated to be a successful, low‐cost and low‐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. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.1002/jctb.4252

Journal

Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology

Year

2014