Tao Li, Xiao-Li Yang, Hai–Liang Song et al.

Journal of Environmental Management • 2021

Wentao Zhang, Donghua Xu, Yue Zhao et al.

Bioresource Technology • 2024

Utilizing microbial fuel cells (MFCs) technology to simultaneously achieve efficient biopower generation and pollutant degradation is a persistent pursuit. However, the limited rate of extracellular electron transfer (EET) and the availability of electrode materials remain key factors limiting the practical application of MFCs. In this article, modified carbon derived from cyanobacteria is applied to modify electrodes and assemble MFCs. By outputting voltage, power density, chemical oxygen demand removal rate and Coulombic efficiency the excellent bioelectricity performance of the assembled MFCs is demonstrated. The degradation performance of the assembled MFCs on various typical pollutants represented by tetracycline is illuminated, even up to 95.12%. Moreover, the pollutant removal mechanism by assembled MFCs is elucidated, including biofilm community and degradation pathway analysis. In a word, the enhanced EET process and high accessibility make the proposed MFC anode have fascinating application prospects in achieving efficient biopower generation and pollutant degradation simultaneously.

Hua Li, Kun Wang, Jiale Xu et al.

Chemosphere • 2023

Rahul Kandpal, Mohammad Shahadat, S. Wazed Ali et al.

Materials Research Bulletin • 2022

Boda Ouyang, Zhiyong Zhang, Fuzhi Chen et al.

Water Research • 2024

Tao Ai, Hao Zhan, Linzhi Zou et al.

The Science of The Total Environment • 2020

Sidan Lu, Binghan Xie, Bing-Feng Liu et al.

Frontiers in Microbiology • 2019

Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are capable of simultaneous wastewater treatment and resource recovery at low temperatures. However, the direct enrichment of psychrophilic and electroactive biofilms in BESs at 4°C is difficult due to the lack of understanding in the physioecology of psychrophilic exoelectrogens. Here, we report the start-up and operation of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) at 4°C with pre-acclimated inocula at different temperatures (4°C, 10°C, 25°C, and -20°C) for 7 days and 14 days. MFCs with 7-day-pretreated inocula reached higher peak voltages than did those with 14-day-pretreated inocula. The highest power densities were obtained by MFCs with 25°C - 7-day-, 25°C - 14-day-, and 4°C - 7-day-pretreated inocula (650-700 mW/m 2 ). In contrast, the control MFCs with untreated inocula were stable at 450 mW/m 2 . The power densities of MFCs with 7-day-pretreated inocula were higher than those obtained by MFCs with 14-day-pretreated inocula. The MFCs with 10°C - 7-day-pretreated inocula and the control MFCs showed higher chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal (90-91%) than other MFCs. Illumina HiSeq sequencing based on 16S rRNA gene amplicons indicated that bacterial communities of the anode biofilms were shaped by pretreated inocula at different temperatures. Compared with the control MFCs with untreated inocula, MFCs with temperature-pretreated inocula demonstrated higher microbial diversity, but did not do so with -20°C-pretreated inocula. Principal components analysis (PCA) revealed an obvious separation between the inocula pretreated at 4°C and those pretreated at 10°C, implying that bacterial community structures could be shaped by pretreated inocula at low temperatures. The pretreatment period also had a diverse impact on the abundance of exoelectrogens and non-exoelectrogens in MFCs with inocula pretreated at different temperatures. The majority of the predominant population was affiliated with Geobacter with a relative abundance of 17-70% at different pre-acclimated temperatures, suggesting that the exoelectrogenic Geobacter could be effectively enriched at 4°C even with inocula pretreated at different temperatures. This study provides a strategy that was previously neglected for fast enrichment of psychrophilic exoelectrogens in BESs at low temperatures.

Zhiling Li, Zhong-Li Zhu, Xiaoqiu Lin et al.

Environmental Research • 2020

Lukasz M. Szydlowski, Jiří Ehlich, Igor Goryanin et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2021

The development of bioelectrochemical systems reinforces the necessity for the identification and engineering of electroactive bacteria with improved performance and novel biochemical properties. In this study, using a newly designed 96-well-plate array of microbial fuel cells (MFCs), we compared the electroactive capabilities of microbial communities derived from four mine drainages. The maximum power density of individual wells after two weeks of inoculation was 102 mW/m3, whereas the maximum current density was 1.6 A/m3. Transferring communities from individual wells into larger MFCs comprising low (20 mg/L) and high (200 mg/L) concentrations of Cu yielded maximum power densities of 445 and 58 mW/m3, respectively, with up to a 3.7 fold decrease in Cu2+ ions within 24 h. Electrochemical data analysis revealed that microbial consortia can be distinguished based on their electrochemical profiles. Our results showed that a 96-well MFC array is a suitable platform for high-throughput screening, selection, and subsequent source of enriched electroactive consortia. The quantitative and comparative analysis followed by principal component analysis indicated that the initial environmental conditions, as well as physical and chemical parameters of the lakes were crucial to develop an efficient electroactive community. Further applications of the proposed platform include genetic engineering, phenotype screening, and mutagenesis studies of both microbial communities and single cultures. This is the first time that a high-throughput MFC platform is used to evaluate the performance of multiple electroactive consortia towards Cu removal.

Haitao Xu, Ye Chen, Qing Wen et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2023

Jonnathan Cabrera, Yexin Dai, Muhammad Irfan et al.

Chemosphere • 2021

M.J. Salar-García, Carlo Santoro, Mounika Kodali et al.

Journal of Power Sources • 2019

In recent years, the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has drawn the attention of the scientific community due to its ability to produce clean energy and treat different types of waste at the same time. Often, expensive catalysts are required to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and this hinders their large-scale commercialisation. In this work, a novel iron-based catalyst (Fe-STR) synthesised from iron salt and streptomycin as a nitrogen-rich organic precursor was chemically, morphologically and electrochemically studied. The kinetics of Fe-STR with and without being doped with carbon nanotubes (CNT) was initially screened through rotating disk electrode (RDE) analysis. Then, the catalysts were integrated into air-breathing cathodes and placed into ceramic-type MFCs continuously fed with human urine. The half-wave potential showed the following trend Fe-STR > Fe-STR-CNT ≫ AC, indicating better kinetics towards ORR in the case of Fe-STR. In terms of MFC performance, the results showed that cathodes containing Fe-based catalyst outperformed AC-based cathodes after 3 months of operation. The long-term test reported that Fe-STR-based cathodes allow MFCs to reach a stable power output of 104.5 ± 0.0 μW cm -2 , 74% higher than AC-based cathodes (60.4 ± 3.9 μW cm -2 ). To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this power performance is the highest recorded from ceramic-type MFCs fed with human urine.

Ke Zhang, Xiangling Wu, Wei Wang et al.

Journal of environmental chemical engineering • 2021

Qiu Bing, Yongyou Hu, Chaoyang Tang et al.

The Science of The Total Environment • 2021

Felix Offei, Anders Thygesen, Moses Mensah et al.

Energies • 2016

Electrode materials are critical for microbial fuel cells (MFC) since they influence the construction and operational costs. This study introduces a simple and efficient electrode material in the form of palm kernel shell activated carbon (AC) obtained in tropical regions. The novel introduction of this material is also targeted at introducing an inexpensive and durable electrode material, which can be produced in rural communities to improve the viability of MFCs. The maximum voltage and power density obtained (under 1000 Ω load) using an H-shaped MFC with AC as both anode and cathode electrode material was 0.66 V and 1.74 W/m3, respectively. The power generated by AC was as high as 86% of the value obtained with the extensively used carbon paper. Scanning electron microscopy and Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of AC anode biofilms confirmed that electrogenic bacteria were present on the electrode surface for substrate oxidation and the formation of nanowires.

Yexin Dai, Yajing Guo, Jiao Wang et al.

Chemosphere • 2021

Yicheng Wu, Zhuoyi Zhou, Haiyan Fu et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production • 2022

Shengnan Li, Jiwei Jiang, Shih‐Hsin Ho et al.

Chemosphere • 2022

Dan Wu, Faqian Sun, Feng Jun Desmond Chua et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2019

Asim Ali Yaqoob, Nabil Al‐Zaqri, Muhammad Alamzeb et al.

Molecules • 2023

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) seem to have emerged in recent years to degrade the organic pollutants from wastewater. The current research also focused on phenol biodegradation using MFCs. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), phenol is a priority pollutant to remediate due to its potential adverse effects on human health. At the same time, the present study focused on the weakness of MFCs, which is the low generation of electrons due to the organic substrate. The present study used rotten rice as an organic substrate to empower the MFC’s functional capacity to degrade the phenol while simultaneously generating bioenergy. In 19 days of operation, the phenol degradation efficiency was 70% at a current density of 17.10 mA/m2 and a voltage of 199 mV. The electrochemical analysis showed that the internal resistance was 312.58 Ω and the maximum specific capacitance value was 0.00020 F/g on day 30, which demonstrated mature biofilm production and its stability throughout the operation. The biofilm study and bacterial identification process revealed that the presence of conductive pili species (Bacillus genus) are the most dominant on the anode electrode. However, the present study also explained well the oxidation mechanism of rotten rice with phenol degradation. The most critical challenges for future recommendations are also enclosed in a separate section for the research community with concluding remarks.

M. Amirul Islam, Maksudur Rahman, Abu Yousuf et al.

MATEC Web of Conferences • 2016

This study is aimed to evaluate the electricity generation from microbial fuel cell (MFC) and to analyze the microbial community structure of city wastewater and anaerobic sludge to enhance the MFC performance. MFCs, enriched with palm oil mill effluent (POME) were employed to harvest electricity by innoculating of Klebsiella oxytoca, collected from city wastewater and other microbes from anaerobic sludge (AS). The MFC showed maximum power density of 207.28 mW/m3 with continuous feeding of POME using microbes from AS. Subsequent replacement with Klebsiella oxytoca resulted maximum power density of 1236 mW/m3 by utilizing complex substrate POME which was six times higher as compared to MFC operated with AS. Based on Biolog gene III analysis, relatively higher abundance of Klebsiella oxytoca was detected in the city wastewater. Predominant microorganisms such as Gammaproteobacteria, Azospiraoryzae, Acetobacterperoxydans and Solimonasvariicoloris were isolated from palm oil anaerobic sludge as well as from biofilm of MFC. Enriched electrochemically active bacteria Klebsiella oxytoca showed better performance to generate electricity from complex POME substrates compare to AS. These results demonstrate that the power output of MFCs can be increased significantly using Klebsiella oxytoca.

Fei Zhong, Chunmei Yu, Yanhong Chen et al.

Frontiers in Microbiology • 2020

An integrated vertical-flow constructed wetland-microbial fuel cell system (CW-MFC), consisting of an up-flow chamber and a down-flow chamber, was constructed to treat synthetic sewage wastewater. The performance of CW-MFCs filled with different substrates [i.e., ceramsite (CM-A), quartz (CM-B), and zeolite (CM-C) granules] under various hydraulic retention times (HRTs, 7.6, 4.0, and 2.8 d) was evaluated. Efficient and stable nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) removals were observed in CM-A under different HRTs, while the voltage outputs of the CW-MFCs was greatly reduced as the HRTs decreased. With an HRT of 2.8 d, the ammonium (NH 4 + -N) and orthophosphate (PO 4 3- -P) removal efficiencies in CM-A were as high as 93.8 and 99.6%, respectively. Bacterial community analysis indicates that the N removal in the cathode area of CM-A could potentially benefit from the appearance of nitrifying bacteria (e.g., Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira ) and relatively high abundance of denitrifiers involved in simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (e.g., Hydrogenophaga , Zoogloea , and Dechloromonas ) and denitrifying sulfide removal (e.g., Thauera ). Additionally, the difference in N removal efficiency among the CW-MFCs could be partly explained by higher iron (Fe) content in milled ceramsite granules and higher abundance of denitrifiers with nitrate reduction and ferrous ions oxidation capabilities in CM-A compared with that in CM-B and CM-C. Efficient PO 4 3- -P removal in CM-A was mainly ascribed to substrate adsorption and denitrifying phosphorus (P) removal. Concerning the substantial purification performance in CM-A, ceramsite granules could be used to improve the nutrient removal efficiency in integrated vertical-flow CW-MFC.

Sha Wang, Jianqiang Zhao, Shuang Liu et al.

Water Air & Soil Pollution • 2018

Ke Zhang, Siqiao Yang, Hongbing Luo et al.

Chemosphere • 2022

Vaidhegi Kugarajah, Sangeetha Dharmalingam

Chemosphere • 2020

Nuan Yang, Hong Liu, Guoqiang Zhan et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production • 2019

Hongyi Zhu, Zhang Zhi, Yingying Zhou et al.

Journal of Water Process Engineering • 2021

Song Qin, Hongbo Liu, Qingchen Meng et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2022

Xueli Zhang, Huimin Wang, Tian Xia et al.

Biosensors and Bioelectronics • 2020

Haitao Xu, Luguang Wang, Cunguo Lin et al.

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology • 2020

Xiang Zhu, Caofeng Shen, Jingxian Huang et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2021

Reo Iigatani, Toshihiro Ito, Fumiko Watanabe et al.

Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering • 2019

Jun Ma, Hongjun Ni, Dongyun Su et al.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy • 2016

Charles Amanze, Xiaoya Zheng, Richmond Anaman et al.

Water Research • 2022

Jing Zhang, Liangliang Chu, Zongwu Wang et al.

Bioelectrochemistry • 2020

Zhiwei Zhu, Pei Xu, Yu Li et al.

Journal of Water Process Engineering • 2023

Hongbin Lu, Yu Yin, Hongbo Xi et al.

Enzyme and Microbial Technology • 2020

Longmian Wang, Qingqing Pang, Fuquan Peng et al.

Frontiers in Microbiology • 2020

This study explores nitrogen removal performance, bioelectricity generation, and the response of microbial community in two novel tidal flow constructed wetland-microbial fuel cells (TFCW-MFCs) when treating synthetic wastewater under two different chemical oxygen demand/total nitrogen (COD/TN, or simplified as C/N) ratios (10:1 and 5:1). The results showed that they achieved high and stable COD, NH 4 + -N, and TN removal efficiencies. Besides, TN removal rate of TFCW-MFC was increased by 5-10% compared with that of traditional CW-MFC. Molecular biological analysis revealed that during the stabilization period, a low C/N ratio remarkably promoted diversities of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in the cathode layer, whereas a high one enhanced the richness of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in each medium; the dominant genera in AOA, AOB, and NOB were Candidatus Nitrosotenuis , Nitrosomonas , and Nitrobacter . Moreover, a high C/N ratio facilitated the growth of Nitrosomonas , while it inhibited the growth of Candidatus Nitrosotenuis . The distribution of microbial community structures in NOB was separated by space rather than time or C/N ratio, except for Nitrobacter . This is caused by the differences of pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and nitrogen concentration. The response of microbial community characteristics to nitrogen transformations and bioelectricity generation demonstrated that TN concentration is significantly negatively correlated with AOA-shannon, AOA-chao, 16S rRNA V4-V5-shannon, and 16S rRNA V4-V5-chao, particularly due to the crucial functions of Nitrosopumilus , Planctomyces , and Aquicella . Additionally, voltage output was primarily influenced by microorganisms in the genera of Nitrosopumilus, Nitrosospira , Altererythrobacter , Gemmata , and Aquicella. This study not only presents an applicable tool to treat high nitrogen-containing wastewater, but also provides a theoretical basis for the use of TFCW-MFC and the regulation of microbial community in nitrogen removal and electricity production.

V. Srinivasan, Caitlyn S. Butler

Environmental Science & Technology • 2017

A poorly understood phenomenon with a potentially significant impact on electron recovery is competition in microbial fuel cells (MFC) between anode-respiring bacteria and microorganisms that use other electron acceptors. Nitrate is a constituent of different wastewaters and can act as a competing electron acceptor in the anode. Studies investigating the impact of competition on population dynamics in mixed communities in the anode are lacking. Here, we investigated the impact of nitrate at different C/N ratios of 1.8, 3.7, and 7.4 mg C/mg N on the electrochemical performance and the biofilm community in mixed-culture chemostat MFCs. The electrochemical performance of the MFC was not affected under electron donor non-limiting conditions, 7.4 mg C/mg N. At lower C/N, electron donor limiting and ratio electron recovery were significantly affected. The electrochemical performance recovered upon removal of nitrate at 3.7 mg C/mg N but did not at 1.8 mg C/mg N. Microbial community analysis showed a decrease in Deltaproteobacteria accompanied by an increase in Betaproteobacteria in response to nitrate at low C/N ratios and no significant changes at 7.4 mg C/mg N. Transcriptional analysis showed increased transcription of nirK and nirS genes during nitrate flux, suggesting that denitrification to N 2 and not facultative nitrate reduction by Geobacter spp. might be the primary response to perturbation with nitrate.

Feifei Liu, Yu-xue Zhang, Tong Lu

Process Safety and Environmental Protection • 2022