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Waste Water Derived Electroactive Microbial Biofilms: Growth, Maintenance, and Basic Characterization
Published on: December 29, 2013
Acetate and electricity generation from methane in conductive fiber membrane- microbial fuel cells
Ya-Nan Bai1, Fang Zhang2, Lin-Peng Yu2
1Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil Environmental Health and Regulation, College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China; Advanced Laboratory for Environmental Research and Technology, USTC-CityU, Suzhou, China.
Abstract:
Microbial conversion of methane to electricity, fuels, and liquid chemicals has attracted much attention. However, due to the low solubility of methane, it is not considered a suitable substrate for microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this study, a conductive fiber membrane (CFM) module was constructed as the bioanode of methane-driven MFCs, directly delivering methane. After biofilm formation on the CFM surface, a steady voltage output of 0.6 to 0.7 V was recorded, and the CFM-MFCs obtained a maximum power density of 64 ± 2 mW/m2. Moreover, methane oxidation produced a high concentration of intermediate acetate (up to 7.1 mM). High-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing suggests that the microbial community was significantly changed after electricity generation. Methane-related archaea formed a symbiotic consortium with characterized electroactive bacteria and fermentative bacteria, suggesting a combination of three types of microorganisms for methane conversion into acetate and electricity.
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