ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effects of Using Anode Biofilm and Cathode
Biofilm Bacteria as Inoculum on the Start-up,
Electricity Generation, and Microbial Community
of Air-Cathode Single-Chamber Microbial
Fuel Cells
| 1 | State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, P.R. China |
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Submission date: 2017-11-22
Final revision date: 2018-01-02
Acceptance date: 2018-01-02
Online publication date: 2018-10-08
Publication date: 2018-12-20
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(2):693–700
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Inoculum is critical for the start-up and performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The effluent
of mature MFCs is usually used as inoculum for the start-up of immature MFCs. However, the effluent
of mature MFCs contains bacteria both from anode biofilm (ASB) and cathode biofilm (CSB). Here,
ASB and CSB and their mixtures were used as inoculum in the start-up of MFCs in order to gain more
insight into the influence of CSB on the start-up of MFCs. Compared to anode inoculum-enriched
MFCs, using cathode inoculum reduced start-up time from 5 d to 3 d. The time needed for scavenging
oxygen was reduced from 900 min to 600 min, maximum power density was 19% lower (691 mW/m2
vs 823 mW/m2), and the charge transfer resistance increased from 29.0 Ω to 48.3 Ω. The decreased
start-up time and power generation of cathode inoculum-enriched MFCs was attributed to the increasing
abundance of Azospirillum (80.02% vs. 12.68%) and the decreasing abundance of Geobacter (9.08%
vs. 61.25%). This research suggested that CSB in the effluent of mature MFCs, when used as inoculum,
has a side-effect on the start-up of MFCs.
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