Electricity generation from mixed volatile fatty acids using microbial fuel cells |
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Authors: | Shao-Xiang Teng Zhong-Hua Tong Wen-Wei Li Shu-Guang Wang Guo-Ping Sheng Xian-Yang Shi Xian-Wei Liu Han-Qing Yu |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China;(2) School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China;(3) Institute of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui, 230039, China; |
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Abstract: | Fermentative hydrogen production, as a process for clean energy recovery from organic wastewater, is limited by its low hydrogen
yield due to incomplete conversion of substrates, with most of the fermentation products being volatile fatty acids (VFAs).
Thus, further recovery of the energy from VFAs is expected. In this work, microbial fuel cell (MFC) was applied to recover
energy in the form of electricity from mixed VFAs of acetate, propionate, and butyrate. Response surface methodology was adopted
to investigate the relative contribution and possible interactions of the three components of VFAs. A stable electricity generation
was demonstrated in MFCs after the enrichment of electrochemically active bacteria. Analysis showed that power density was
more sensitive to the composition of mixed VFAs than coulombic efficiency. The electricity generation could mainly be attributed
to the portion of acetate and propionate. However, the two components showed an antagonistic effect when propionate exceeded
19%, causing a decrease in coulombic efficiency. Butyrate was found to exert a negative impact on both power density and coulombic
efficiency. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profiles revealed the enrichment of electrochemically active bacteria
from the inoculum sludge. Proteobacteria (Beta-, Delta-) and Bacteroidetes were predominant in all VFA-fed MFCs. Shifts in
bacterial community structures were observed when different compositions of VFA mixtures were used as the electron donor.
The overall electron recovery efficiency may be increased from 15.7% to 27.4% if fermentative hydrogen production and MFC
processes are integrated. |
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