Inocula selection in microbial fuel cells based on anodic biofilm abundance of Geobacter sulfurreducens

doi:10.1016/j.cjche.2015.11.002

Abstract

Abstract: Microbial fuel cells(MFCs) rely on microbial conversion of organic substrates to electricity.The optimal performance depends on the establishment of amicrobial community rich in electrogenic bacteria.Usually thismicrobial community is established from inoculation of the MFC anode chamber with naturally occurring mixed inocula.In this study, the electrochemical performance of MFCs and microbial community evolution were evaluated for three inocula including domestic wastewater(DW), lake sediment(LS) and biogas sludge(BS) with varying substrate loading(L_sub) and external resistance(R_ext) on theMFC.The electrogenic bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens was identified in all inocula and its abundance duringMFC operation was positively linked to the MFC performance.The LS inoculated MFCs showed highest abundance(18%±1%) of G.sulfurreducens, maximum current density [I_max=(690±30) mA·m^-2] and coulombic efficiency(CE=29%±1%) with acetate as the substrate.I_max and CE increased to(1780±30) mA·m^-2 and 58%±1%, respectively, after decreasing the R_ext from 1000Ω to 200Ω, which also correlated to a higher abundance of G.sulfurreducens(21%±0.7%) on the MFC anodic biofilm.The data obtained contribute to understanding the microbial community response to L_sub and R_ext for optimizing electricity generation in MFCs.

Key words: Lake sediment, Coulombic efficiency, Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, Geobacter sulfurreducens, Anode polarisation resistance

Guotao Sun, Diogo de Sacadura Rodrigues, Anders Thygesen, Geoffrey Daniel, Dinesh Fernando, Anne S. Meyer. Inocula selection in microbial fuel cells based on anodic biofilm abundance of Geobacter sulfurreducens[J]. , 2016, 24(3): 379-387.

Guotao Sun, Diogo de Sacadura Rodrigues, Anders Thygesen, Geoffrey Daniel, Dinesh Fernando, Anne S. Meyer. [J]. , 2016, 24(3): 379-387.

References

[1] G. Sun, A. Thygesen,M.T. Ale,M.Mensah, F.W. Poulsen, A.S. Meyer, The significance of the initiation process parameters and reactor design for maximizing the efficiency of microbial fuel cells, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 98(2014) 2415-2427.
[2] D.R. Lovley, Microbial fuel cells:novel microbial physiologies and engineering approaches, Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 17(2006) 327-332.
[3] S.T. Read, P. Dutta, P.L. Bond, J. Keller, K. Rabaey, Initial development and structure of biofilms on microbial fuel cell anodes, BMC Microbiol. 10(2010) 98.
[4] D.R. Lovley, E.J.P. Phillips, Novel mode ofmicrobial energy metabolism:Organic carbon oxidation coupled to dissimilatory reduction of iron or manganese, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 54(1988) 1472-1480.
[5] K.P. Nevin, H. Richter, S.F. Covalla, J.P. Johnson, T.L. Woodard, A.L. Orloff, H. Jia, M. Zhang, D.R. Lovley, Power output and columbic efficiencies from biofilms of Geobacter sulfurreducens comparable to mixed community microbial fuel cells, Environ. Microbiol. 10(2008) 2505-2514.
[6] G. Sun, A. Thygesen,A.S.Meyer,Acetate is a superior substrate formicrobial fuel cell initiation preceding bioethanol effluent utilization, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 99(2015) 4905-4915.
[7] M.D. Yates, P.D. Kiely, D.F. Call, H. Rismani-Yazdi, K. Bibby, J. Peccia, J.M. Regan, E.B. Logan, Convergent development of anodic bacterial communities in microbial fuel cells, ISME J. 6(2012) 2002-2013.
[8] Y. Zhang, B. Min, L. Huang, I. Angelidaki, Electricity generation and microbial community response to substrate changes in microbial fuel cell, Bioresour. Technol. 102(2011) 1166-1173.
[9] K.J. Chae, M.J. Choi, J.W. Lee, K.Y. Kim, I.S. Kim, Effect of different substrates on the performance, bacterial diversity, and bacterial viability in microbial fuel cells, Bioresour. Technol. 100(2009) 3518-3525.
[10] D.E. Holmes, D.R. Bond, R.A. O'Neil, C.E. Reimers, L.R. Tender, D.R. Lovley, Microbial communities associated with electrodes harvesting electricity from a variety of aquatic sediments, Microb. Ecol. 48(2004) 178-190.
[11] P. Aelterman, M. Versichele, M. Marzorati, N. Boon, W. Verstraete, Loading rate and external resistance control the electricity generation of microbial fuel cells with different three-dimensional anodes, Bioresour. Technol. 99(2008) 8895-8902.
[12] G.S. Jadhav, M.M. Ghangrekar, Performance of microbial fuel cell subjected to variation in pH, temperature, external load and substrate concentration, Bioresour. Technol. 100(2009) 717-723.
[13] S. Jung, J.M. Regan, Influence of external resistance on electrogenesis, methanogenesis, and anode prokaryotic communities in microbial fuel cells, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 77(2011) 564-571.
[14] G. Muyzer, E.C. de Waal, A.G. Uitterlinden, Profiling of complex microbial populations by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of polymerase chain reaction-amplified genes coding for 16S rRNA, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 59(1993) 695-700.
[15] A. Thygesen, G. Daniel, H. Lilholt, A.B. Thomsen, Hemp fiber microstructure and use of fungal defibration to obtain fibers for composite materials, J. Nat. Fibers 2(2005) 19-37.
[16] X.M. Li, K.Y. Cheng, A. Selvam, J.W.C. Wong, Bioelectricity production from acidic food waste leachate using microbial fuel cells:Effect of microbial inocula, Process Biochem. 48(2013) 283-288.
[17] A. Ter Heijne, O. Schaetzle, S. Gimenez, F. Fabregat-Santiago, J. Bisquert, D.P.B.T.B. Strik, F. Barrière, C.J.N. Buisman, H.V.M. Hamelers, Identifying charge and mass transfer resistances of an oxygen reducing biocathode, Energy Environ. Sci. 4(2011) 5035-5043.
[18] Y. Fan, E. Sharbrough, H. Liu, Quantification of the internal resistance distribution of microbial fuel Cells, Environ. Sci. Technol. 42(2008) 8101-8107.
[19] Y. Zhang, B.Min, L. Huang, I. Angelidaki, Generation of electricity and analysis ofmicrobial communities in wheat straw biomass-poweredmicrobial fuel cells, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75(2009) 3389-3395.
[20] B.E. Logan, J.M. Regan, Electricity-producing bacterial communities in microbial fuel cells, Trends Microbiol. 14(2006) 512-518.
[21] G. Reguera, K.P. Nevin, J.S. Nicoll, S.F. Covalla, T.L.Woodard, D.R. Lovley, Biofilm and nanowire production leads to increased current in Geobacter sulfurreducens fuel cells, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72(2006) 7345-7348.
[22] T. Nishiyama, A. Ueki, N. Kaku, K. Watanabe, K. Ueki, Bacteroides graminisolvens sp. nov., a xylanolytic anaerobe isolated from a methanogenic reactor treating cattle waste, Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 59(2009) 1901-1907.
[23] E.W. Rice, M.R. Rodgers, I.V. Wesley, C.H. Johnson, S. Tanner, Isolation of Arcobacter butzleri from ground water, Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 28(1999) 31-35.
[24] A. Ueki, H. Akasaka, D. Suzuki, K. Ueki, Paludibacter propionicigenes gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel strictly anaerobic, Gram-negative, propionate-producing bacterium isolated from plant residue in irrigated rice-field soil in Japan, Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 56(2006) 39-44.
[25] M. Chovatia, J. Sikorski, M. Schröder, A. Lapidus, M. Nolan, H. Tice, Glavina, T.G. Del Rio, A. Copeland, J.F. Cheng, S. Lucas, F. Chen, D. Bruce, L. Goodwin, S. Pitluck, N. Ivanova, K. Mavromatis, G. Ovchinnikova, A. Pati, A. Chen, K. Palaniappan, M. Land, L. Hauser, Y.J. Chang, C.D. Jeffries, P. Chain, E. Saunders, J.C. Detter, T. Brettin, M. Rohde, M. Göker, S. Spring, J. Bristow, V. Markowitz, P. Hugenholtz, N.C. Kyrpides, H.P. Klenk, J.A. Eisen, Complete genome sequence of Thermanaerovibrio acidaminovorans type strain(Su883), Stand. Genomic Sci. 1(2009) 254-261.
[26] A. Kazaks, A.Dislers,G. Lipowsky, V.Nikolajeva, K. Tars, Complete genome sequence of the Enterobacter cancerogenus bacteriophage Enc34, J. Virol. 86(2012) 11403-11404.
[27] D.J. Brenner, C.M. O'Hara, P.A.D. Grimont, J.M. Janda, E. Falsen, E. Aldova, E. Ageron, J. Schindler, S.L. Abbott, A.G. Steigerwalt, Biochemical identification of Citrobacter species defined by DNA hybridization and description of Citrobacter gillenii sp. nov.(formerly Citrobacter genomospecies 10) and Citrobacter murliniae sp. nov.(formerly Citrobacter genomospecies 11), J. Clin. Microbiol. 37(1999) 2619-2624.
[28] D.M. Abou-Zeid, H. Biebl, C. Sproer, R.J. Muller, Propionispora hippei sp nov., a novel Gram-negative, spore-forming anaerobe that produces propionic acid, Int. J. Syst. Evol. 54(2004) 951-954.
[29] Y. Liu, F. Harnisch, K. Fricke, R. Sietmann, U. Schröder, Improvement of the anodic bioelectrocatalytic activity of mixed culture biofilms by a simple consecutive electrochemical selection procedure, Biosens. Bioelectron. 24(2008) 1012-1017.