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Updated: Feb 7, 2026

Tuning Degradation to Achieve Specific and Efficient Protein Depletion
Published on: July 20, 2019
Micro-oxygen bioanode: An efficient strategy for enhancement of phenol degradation and current generation in
Li-Hui Yang1, Ting-Ting Zhu2, Wei-Wei Cai3
1Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
Abstract:
It is controversial to introduce oxygen into anode chamber as oxygen would decrease the CE (Coulombic efficiency) while it could also enhance the degradation of aromatics in microbial fuel cell (MFCs). Therefore, it is important to balance the pros and cons of oxygen in aromatics driven MFCs. A RMO (micro-oxygen bioanode MFC) was designed to determine the effect of oxygen on electricity output and phenol degradation. The RMO showed 6-fold higher phenol removal efficiency, 4-fold higher current generation than the RAN (anaerobic bioanode MFC) at a cost of 26.9% decline in CE. The Zoogloea and Geobacter, which account for phenol degradation and current generation, respectively, were dominated in the RMO bioanode biofilm. The biomass also showed great difference between RMO and RAN (114.3 ± 14.1 vs. 2.2 ± 0.5 nmol/g). Therefore, different microbial community, higher biomass as well as the different degradation pathway were suggested as reasons for the better performance in RMO.
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