微生物燃料电池中产电微生物的研究进展

产电微生物是微生物燃料电池系统的核心组成, 本文从生物学角度介绍了几种产电微生物的分类学地位、形态特征、生理生化特征及在微生物燃料电池中的产电机理和产电能力, 分析了利用产电微生物进行废水处理同时生物发电的应用前景, 提出产电微生物在MFC系统中的进一步研究方向为微生物的富集、驯化、改造和多种菌种优化组合等。     

强化产电微生物与电极间电子传递速率的研究进展

产电微生物是微生物燃料电池、电解池和电合成等微生物电化学技术(Microbial electrochemical technologies,METs)的研究基础。产电微生物与电极界面间的胞外电子传递(Extracellular electron transfer,EET)效率低以及生物被膜形成能力弱限制了METs在有机物降解、电能生产、海水淡化、生物修复和生物传感等方面的应用。因此,强化产电微生物与电极界面间的相互作用是过去几年的主要研究热点。针对近年的研究,本文系统概述了通过改造产电微生物来增强微生物-电极间相互作用的各种策略,重点分析了这些策略的适用性和局限性,并展望了强化产电微生物-电极界面作用在微生物电化学技术利用方面的研究前景。     

一株耐盐产电菌Shewanella algae E-1的分离及其产电特性分析

【背景】产电微生物的种类和电化学活性机制对微生物燃料电池的产电性能有着重要的影响。【目的】从海水中分离获得一株耐盐产电微生物,研究其产电特性并鉴定种属信息。【方法】以取自南海的海水为接种液启动并运行阳极液中含有不同盐浓度的微生物燃料电池,从富集的阳极生物膜上分离得到一株纯培养的微生物菌株,命名为E-1。通过接种于阳极液中添加不同盐浓度的微生物燃料电池中对其产电特性进行分析,并利用形态学观察、Biolog分析和16SrRNA基因序列比对相结合的方法进行种属鉴定。【结果】菌株E-1在无外源添加和外源添加6.6%NaCl条件下产生的功率密度分别为51.69 m W/m2和26.56 m W/m2,这与其良好的耐盐能力相关。菌株E-1被鉴定为海藻希瓦氏菌(Shewanella algae),表现出多样的底物利用能力,生长的温度范围为25-40°C,pH范围为5.0-10.0。【结论】这是首次对Shewanella algae种内微生物产电性能及其在微生物燃料电池中应用的报道,丰富了产电微生物的多样性,菌株E-1能够在较高盐浓度条件下表现出良好的产电性能,为微生物燃料电池在海水资源化处理方面的应用提供新的实验材料。     

合成生物学方法构建电活性大肠杆菌

电活性微生物具有独特的在细胞内外环境之间传递电子的能力。在对天然电活性微生物电子传递机制充分研究的基础上,通过合成生物学方法异源构建天然电活性微生物电子传递结构基础也可以将遗传背景清晰的非电活性大肠杆菌改造为电活性微生物。构建获得的工程化电活性大肠杆菌可以直接应用于微生物燃料电池和生物传感器等领域,同时也可以作为底盘细胞整合相应的目标产物合成通路实现电能驱动的生物合成。本文以合成生物学方法构建电活性大肠杆菌为主题,详细阐述天然电活性微生物电子传递的机理及结构基础,总结了工程化电活性大肠杆菌的构建策略、成功案例以及应用领域,并对合成生物学方法构建电活性大肠杆菌未来的研究方向进行了展望。     

微生物胞外电子传递效率的合成生物学强化

电活性微生物(产电微生物和亲电微生物)通过与外界环境进行双向电子和能量传递来实现多种微生物电催化过程(包括微生物燃料电池、微生物电解电池、微生物电催化等),从而实现在环境、能源领域的广泛应用,并为开发有效且可持续性生产新能源或大宗精细化学品的工艺提供了新机会。但是,电活性微生物的胞外电子传递效率比较低,这已经成为限制微生物电催化系统在工业应用中的主要瓶颈。以下综述了近年来利用合成生物学改造电活性微生物的相关研究成果,阐明了合成生物学如何用于打破电活性微生物胞外电子传递途径低效率的瓶颈,从而实现电活性微生物与环境的高效电子传递和能量交换,推动电活性微生物电催化系统的实用化进程。     

人工湿地-微生物燃料电池耦合系统的研究进展

人工湿地-微生物燃料电池耦合系统(CW-MFC)是一种将人工湿地技术(CW)和微生物燃料电池技术(MFC)结合在一起的新型污水处理系统,其产电机理是产电微生物在底层湿地(阳极)的厌氧条件下生成电子,通过外电路传递到表面湿地(阴极)完成氧化还原反应。但是,近几年来,关于CW-MFC研究的文章较少且研究深度较浅。综述了电极材料、水力条件、湿地植物及微生物等条件对CW-MFC污水处理能力和产电能力的影响。在电极材料方面,选用导电性、吸附性及有效面积大的材料作为电极可有效提高CW-MFC产电与去污能力;在水利条件方面,在HRT为2-3 d的条件下,应选用升流式或升流-降流式的入水方式;湿地植物方面,种植湿地植物的CW-MFC在去污和产电能力上都要优于未种植植物的CW-MFC;微生物方面,阴极与阳极的微生物群落结构存在明显的差异,但存在的产电菌的种类却十分相似。CW-MFC中存在的常见产电微生物主要包括地杆菌属(Geobacter)、脱硫叶菌属(Desulfobulbus)、假单胞菌属(Pseudomona)和脱硫弧菌属(Desulfovibrio)等。最后对CW-MFC的研究方向进行了分析,以期为CW-MFC的实际应用提供理论依据。     

异化金属还原菌的研究进展*

微生物利用金属氧化物作呼吸作用的最终电子受体是一种新的代谢途径。该过程微生物利用有机底物异化还原金属氧化物进行生长代谢。异化金属还原菌对于研究探索古生物呼吸形式、界定生命的上限温度等生命科学问题具有重要研究价值,同时在生物整治、微生物燃料电池等方面具有广阔的应用前景。对异化金属还原菌进行了综述,并对这类菌的研究应用给予评述和展望。     

异化金属还原菌的研究进展

微生物利用金属氧化物作呼吸作用的最终电子受体是一种新的代谢途径。该过程微生物利用有机底物异化还原金属氧化物进行生长代谢。异化金属还原菌对于研究探索古生物呼吸形式、界定生命的上限温度等生命科学问题具有重要研究价值,同时在生物整治、微生物燃料电池等方面具有广阔的应用前景。对异化金属还原菌进行了综述,并对这类菌的研究应用给了评述和展望。     

产电菌群及电子受体对微生物燃料电池性能的影响

采用2种类型的微生物燃料电池——常规微生物燃料电池(S MFCs,以生活污水作为产电菌群接种源、以硝酸盐作为电子受体）和改进后的微生物燃料电池（A MFCs,以厌氧发酵液作为产电菌群接种源、以铁氰化物作为电子受体）,分析了产电菌群和电子受体的改进对微生物燃料电池产电性能的影响.结果表明：产电菌群和电子受体对MFCs驯化周期和运行周期具有显著影响,使驯化周期由S-MFCs的500 h缩短到A-MFCs的430 h,运行周期由
S-MFCs的100 h增加到A-MFCs的350 h;改进后的微生物燃料电池使COD去除率提升了25%,使电压输出提高了约300%.选择合适的产电菌菌种和电子受体标准电极电势是微生物燃料电
池性能提升的基础.     

微生物燃料电池内阻及其影响因素分析

微生物燃料电池(MFC)是一种通过微生物的催化作用将有机物中的化学能直接转化为电能的生物反应装置,研究表明内阻是限制微生物燃料电池产能的重要因素。本文对目前国内外有关微生物燃料电池内阻的研究成果进行了总结,系统介绍了微生物燃料电池内阻定义、构成和常用的微生物燃料电池内阻测定方法,重点分析了反应器、产电底物、产电微生物和操作条件等对微生物燃料电池内阻的影响,并结合已有的研究结果提出了降低内阻、提高微生物燃料电池产电性能的可行性方法。     

Electricity generation by direct oxidation of glucose in mediatorless microbial fuel cells

Abundant energy, stored primarily in the form of carbohydrates, can be found in waste biomass from agricultural, municipal and industrial sources as well as in dedicated energy crops, such as corn and other grains. Potential strategies for deriving useful forms of energy from carbohydrates include production of ethanol and conversion to hydrogen, but these approaches face technical and economic hurdles. An alternative strategy is direct conversion of sugars to electrical power. Existing transition metal-catalyzed fuel cells cannot be used to generate electric power from carbohydrates. Alternatively, biofuel cells in which whole cells or isolated redox enzymes catalyze the oxidation of the sugar have been developed, but their applicability has been limited by several factors, including (i) the need to add electron-shuttling compounds that mediate electron transfer from the cell to the anode, (ii) incomplete oxidation of the sugars and (iii) lack of long-term stability of the fuel cells. Here we report on a novel microorganism, Rhodoferax ferrireducens, that can oxidize glucose to CO(2) and quantitatively transfer electrons to graphite electrodes without the need for an electron-shuttling mediator. Growth is supported by energy derived from the electron transfer process itself and results in stable, long-term power production.     

Improving energy accumulation of microbial fuel cells by metabolism regulation using Rhodoferax ferrireducens as biocatalyst

AIMS: To study the physiology and metabolism of microbial cells in the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). METHODS AND RESULTS: A dual-chamber MFCs was constructed, and Rhodoferax ferrireducens was used as biocatalyst. To examine the physiology of microbial cells in the performance of MFCs, the anode media containing planktonic cells was replaced with fresh media in which KH(2)PO(4) and/or NH(4)Cl were excluded. The replacing of anode media containing planktonic cells with fresh media excluded of KH(2)PO(4) and NH(4)Cl made the coulombic yield remarkably increased by a factor of 68% (from 29.1 to 46.8C). The results showed that the electricity could be generated with cells in biofilms as biocatalyst, and coulombic yield was improved by limiting cell growth via removal of ingredients in anode media. By supplementation of glucose to the anode media when current declined to baseline, MFCs achieved about same platform current values immediately. MFCs could continue to produce electricity for about 30 h even after glucose was below detection. CONCLUSIONS: Biofilms and metabolism of glucose play important roles in the performance of MFCs. Coulombic yield of MFCs could be improved by regulating the media ingredients using the stable biofilms-electrode system. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This is the first attempt to study the effect of ingredient compositions of anode media on the performance of MFCs. The observed results that MFCs continued to produce electricity after glucose was below detection was helpful to better understand the mechanism of microbial electricity production.     

Towards development of electrogenetics using electrochemically active bacteria

Owing to the ability for efficient electric interaction with electrodes, electrochemically active bacteria (EAB) attract considerable attention in biotechnology. These bacteria are involved not only in the generation of electricity from organic wastes in microbial fuel cells but also in the production of valued chemicals with the aid of electric energy in microbial electrosynthesis systems. It has been known that metabolic activities in EAB are affected by electrode potentials, while a recent work has found that in an EAB, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, an Arc regulatory system regulates the expression of diverse catabolic genes by sensing electrode potentials. This finding suggests that the Arc system can be used for electrode potential-dependent control of gene expression in living cells and opens up a novel biotechnology platform, termed “electrogenetics”. This article summarizes current knowledge on the catabolic and regulatory systems in EAB with a particular focus on the role of the Arc system and suggests the potential of electrogenetics in biotechnology.     

Growth with high planktonic biomass in Shewanella oneidensis fuel cells

Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 grew for over 50 days in microbial fuel cells, incompletely oxidizing lactate to acetate with high recovery of the electrons derived from this reaction as electricity. Electricity was produced with lactate or hydrogen and current was comparable to that of electricigens which completely oxidize organic substrates. However, unlike fuel cells with previously described electricigens, in which cells are primarily attached to the anode, at least as many of the S. oneidensis cells were planktonic as were attached to the anode. These results demonstrate that S. oneidensis may conserve energy for growth with an electrode serving as an electron acceptor and suggest that multiple strategies for electron transfer to fuel cell anodes exist.     

Biofuel cells select for microbial consortia that self-mediate electron transfer

Microbial fuel cells hold great promise as a sustainable biotechnological solution to future energy needs. Current efforts to improve the efficiency of such fuel cells are limited by the lack of knowledge about the microbial ecology of these systems. The purposes of this study were (i) to elucidate whether a bacterial community, either suspended or attached to an electrode, can evolve in a microbial fuel cell to bring about higher power output, and (ii) to identify species responsible for the electricity generation. Enrichment by repeated transfer of a bacterial consortium harvested from the anode compartment of a biofuel cell in which glucose was used increased the output from an initial level of 0.6 W m(-2) of electrode surface to a maximal level of 4.31 W m(-2) (664 mV, 30.9 mA) when plain graphite electrodes were used. This result was obtained with an average loading rate of 1 g of glucose liter(-1) day(-1) and corresponded to 81% efficiency for electron transfer from glucose to electricity. Cyclic voltammetry indicated that the enhanced microbial consortium had either membrane-bound or excreted redox components that were not initially detected in the community. Dominant species of the enhanced culture were identified by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and culturing. The community consisted mainly of facultative anaerobic bacteria, such as Alcaligenes faecalis and Enterococcus gallinarum, which are capable of hydrogen production. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other Pseudomonas species were also isolated. For several isolates, electrochemical activity was mainly due to excreted redox mediators, and one of these mediators, pyocyanin produced by P. aeruginosa, could be characterized. Overall, the enrichment procedure, irrespective of whether only attached or suspended bacteria were examined, selected for organisms capable of mediating the electron transfer either by direct bacterial transfer or by excretion of redox components.     

Bioelectric power generation

In the recent article by Chaudhuri and Lovley, a fuel cell is described in which a microorganism, Rhodoferax ferrireducens, is used to oxidize glucose to carbon dioxide at neutral pH. This reaction occurs via direct bioelectrocatalysis: the microorganism uses the anode itself as the terminal oxidant to which liberated electrons are transferred, and does so with 83% efficiency. These findings are significant because they demonstrate a new approach for harvesting energy from the environment using microorganisms.     

Electricity production by Geobacter sulfurreducens attached to electrodes

Previous studies have suggested that members of the Geobacteraceae can use electrodes as electron acceptors for anaerobic respiration. In order to better understand this electron transfer process for energy production, Geobacter sulfurreducens was inoculated into chambers in which a graphite electrode served as the sole electron acceptor and acetate or hydrogen was the electron donor. The electron-accepting electrodes were maintained at oxidizing potentials by connecting them to similar electrodes in oxygenated medium (fuel cells) or to potentiostats that poised electrodes at +0.2 V versus an Ag/AgCl reference electrode (poised potential). When a small inoculum of G. sulfurreducens was introduced into electrode-containing chambers, electrical current production was dependent upon oxidation of acetate to carbon dioxide and increased exponentially, indicating for the first time that electrode reduction supported the growth of this organism. When the medium was replaced with an anaerobic buffer lacking nutrients required for growth, acetate-dependent electrical current production was unaffected and cells attached to these electrodes continued to generate electrical current for weeks. This represents the first report of microbial electricity production solely by cells attached to an electrode. Electrode-attached cells completely oxidized acetate to levels below detection (<10 micro M), and hydrogen was metabolized to a threshold of 3 Pa. The rates of electron transfer to electrodes (0.21 to 1.2 micro mol of electrons/mg of protein/min) were similar to those observed for respiration with Fe(III) citrate as the electron acceptor (E(o)' =+0.37 V). The production of current in microbial fuel cell (65 mA/m(2) of electrode surface) or poised-potential (163 to 1,143 mA/m(2)) mode was greater than what has been reported for other microbial systems, even those that employed higher cell densities and electron-shuttling compounds. Since acetate was completely oxidized, the efficiency of conversion of organic electron donor to electricity was significantly higher than in previously described microbial fuel cells. These results suggest that the effectiveness of microbial fuel cells can be increased with organisms such as G. sulfurreducens that can attach to electrodes and remain viable for long periods of time while completely oxidizing organic substrates with quantitative transfer of electrons to an electrode.     

Bacterial community structure, compartmentalization and activity in a microbial fuel cell

AIMS: To characterize bacterial populations and their activities within a microbial fuel cell (MFC), using cultivation-independent and cultivation approaches. METHODS AND RESULTS: Electron microscopic observations showed that the fuel cell electrode had a microbial biofilm attached to its surface with loosely associated microbial clumps. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene libraries were constructed and analysed from each of four compartments within the fuel cell: the planktonic community; the membrane biofilm; bacterial clumps (BC) and the anode biofilm. Results showed that the bacterial community structure varied significantly between these compartments. It was observed that Gammaproteobacteria phylotypes were present at higher numbers within libraries from the BC and electrode biofilm compared with other parts of the fuel cell. Community structure of the MFC determined by analyses of bacterial 16S rRNA gene libraries and anaerobic cultivation showed excellent agreement with community profiles from denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, such as Klebsiella sp. and Enterobacter sp. and other Gammaproteobacteria with Fe(III)-reducing and electrochemical activity had a significant potential for energy generation in this system. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This study has shown that electrochemically active bacteria can be enriched using an electrochemical fuel cell.     

铁还原菌在水资源再生与能源转化领域的研究进展

铁还原菌是一种典型的异化金属还原菌,广泛分布于海洋沉积物、陆地深地层等自然环境,该类细菌可以将铁氧化物中的Fe(Ⅲ)还原为Fe(Ⅱ),在铁、碳的生物地球化学铁循环中发挥重要作用。铁还原菌的末端电子不局限于Fe(Ⅲ),还可以是其他高价金属、有机污染物,可用于土壤、地下水的污染修复和毒性削减。在微生物电化学系统中,铁还原菌氧化有机物产生的电子直接传递给电极,可以产生电能。基于这种独特的胞外电子传递方式,衍生出了微生物燃料电池、微生物电解池、微生物脱盐电池、微生物燃料电池耦合芬顿反应以及光催化微生物燃料电池,常用于微生物发电、生物传感器、生物制氢、定向发酵、海水淡化、生物脱盐和污染物分解矿化。本文从异化铁还原菌的代谢机制、微生态作用、环境修复、水资源再生与能源转化四个方面,综述了铁还原菌的作用原理及国内外研究现状,分析论述了目前亟需解决的关键问题和未来的研究方向,以期为铁还原菌的基础理论研究和应用技术研发提供参考。     

Electricity generation from carbon monoxide and syngas in a microbial fuel cell

Electricity generation in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) has been a subject of significant research efforts. MFCs employ the ability of electricigenic bacteria to oxidize organic substrates using an electrode as an electron acceptor. While MFC application for electricity production from a variety of organic sources has been demonstrated, very little research on electricity production from carbon monoxide and synthesis gas (syngas) in an MFC has been reported. Although most of the syngas today is produced from non-renewable sources, syngas production from renewable biomass or poorly degradable organic matter makes energy generation from syngas a sustainable process, which combines energy production with the reprocessing of solid wastes. An MFC-based process of syngas conversion to electricity might offer a number of advantages such as high Coulombic efficiency and biocatalytic activity in the presence of carbon monoxide and sulfur components. This paper presents a discussion on microorganisms and reactor designs that can be used for operating an MFC on syngas.