TY - JOUR
T1 - Community structure dynamics during startup in microbial fuel cells - The effect of phosphate concentrations
AU - Yanuka-Golub, Keren
AU - Reshef, Leah
AU - Rishpon, Judith
AU - Gophna, Uri
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/7/1
Y1 - 2016/7/1
N2 - For microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to become a cost-effective wastewater treatment technology, they must produce a stable electro-active microbial community quickly and operate under realistic wastewater nutrient conditions. The composition of the anodic-biofilm and planktonic-cells communities was followed temporally for MFCs operated under typical laboratory phosphate concentrations (134 mg L-1 P) versus wastewater phosphate concentrations (16 mg L-1 P). A stable peak voltage was attained two-fold faster in MFCs operating under lower phosphate concentration. All anodic-biofilms were composed of well-known exoelectrogenic bacterial families; however, MFCs showing faster startup and a stable voltage had a Desulfuromonadaceae-dominated-biofilm, while biofilms co-dominated by Desulfuromonadaceae and Geobacteraceae characterized slower or less stable MFCs. Interestingly, planktonic-cell concentrations of these bacteria followed a similar trend as the anodic-biofilm and could therefore serve as a biomarker for its formation. These results demonstrate that wastewater-phosphate concentrations do not compromise MFCs efficiency, and considerably speed up startup times.
AB - For microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to become a cost-effective wastewater treatment technology, they must produce a stable electro-active microbial community quickly and operate under realistic wastewater nutrient conditions. The composition of the anodic-biofilm and planktonic-cells communities was followed temporally for MFCs operated under typical laboratory phosphate concentrations (134 mg L-1 P) versus wastewater phosphate concentrations (16 mg L-1 P). A stable peak voltage was attained two-fold faster in MFCs operating under lower phosphate concentration. All anodic-biofilms were composed of well-known exoelectrogenic bacterial families; however, MFCs showing faster startup and a stable voltage had a Desulfuromonadaceae-dominated-biofilm, while biofilms co-dominated by Desulfuromonadaceae and Geobacteraceae characterized slower or less stable MFCs. Interestingly, planktonic-cell concentrations of these bacteria followed a similar trend as the anodic-biofilm and could therefore serve as a biomarker for its formation. These results demonstrate that wastewater-phosphate concentrations do not compromise MFCs efficiency, and considerably speed up startup times.
KW - Anodic-biofilm development
KW - Microbial communities
KW - Microbial fuel cell
KW - Phosphate concentration
KW - Startup time
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84963644302&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.04.016
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.04.016
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AN - SCOPUS:84963644302
SN - 0960-8524
VL - 212
SP - 151
EP - 159
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
ER -