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Updated: Feb 16, 2026

Probing and Mapping Electrode Surfaces in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Published on: September 20, 2012
Two-stage pretreatment of excess sludge for electricity generation in microbial fuel cell
Yi Zhang1, Yang-Guo Zhao1,2, Liang Guo1,2
1a Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Geological Engineering (MEGE), College of Environmental Science and Engineering , Ocean University of China , Qingdao 266100 , People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Thermophiles hydrolysis and acidogens fermentation were sequentially adopted to pretreat excess sludge for microbial fuel cell (MFC) electricity production. The results indicated that MFC fed with the thermophiles-acidogens pretreated sludge (MFC AB), reached a higher removal of ammonia nitrogen than the MFC fed with the heating hydrolysis and acidogens fermentation pretreated sludge (MFC NB). However, compared with the MFC AB, MFC NB presented a better performance for removal of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) (90.08%) and protein (82.42%). As for the electricity production, MFC NB obtained higher voltage of 0.632 V and maximum power density with 1.05 W/m3 while MFC AB reached maximum voltage of 0.373 V and maximum power density of 0.58 W/m3. Bacterial 16S rRNA-based molecular microbial techniques showed that microbial communities on both MFC anode biofilms was diverse and different. The cooperation of fermentation bacteria and electricigen Shewanella baltica in the MFC NB may have contributed towards the improvement of electricity generation.
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