Increased power generation from cylindrical microbial fuel cell inoculated with P. aeruginosa

Herein, carbon brush cylindrical microbial fuel cell is constructed to decrease internal resistance and increase electricity production. The application of cylindrical single-chamber microbial fuel cell gives full play to the role of anode carbon brush and increases contact with surrounding oxygen by enlarging the surface area of the cathode. Both cylindrical design and P. aeruginosa inoculation in anode have positive effects on power output of microbial fuel cells. Changing the configuration from cubic to cylindrical resulted in a substantial reduction in internal resistance from 127.21 Ω to 49.66 Ω. Meanwhile, the cylindrical microbial fuel cell inoculated with mixed anaerobic bacteria exhibits power overshoot, and the dissolved oxygen in the electrolyte is raised. Thus, we also select P. aeruginosa inoculation in cylindrical reactor, where the maximum power density is increased to 3322 ± 38 mW m^-2 and internal resistance is reduced to 34.0 ± 1.1 Ω, and then power overshoot is improved. Thus, P. aeruginosa showed better electrogenic performance than anaerobic mixtures. In addition, chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies (about one cycle) of the three microbial fuel cells are similar, but the cylindrical cell handles about 0.7 times of sewage more than the cubic cell showing that cylindrical microbial fuel cell has a higher capacity of sewage treatment.