Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration area, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
Bioelectrochemistry. 2010 Aug;79(1):71-6. doi: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2009.12.001. Epub 2009 Dec 11.
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) holds a great promise to harvest electricity directly from a wide range of ready degradable organic matters and enhance degradation of some recalcitrant contaminants. Glucose, acetate sodium and ethanol were separately examined as co-substrates for simultaneous bioelectricity generation and Congo red degradation in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) air-cathode single-chamber MFC. The batch test results showed that more than 98% decolorization at the dye concentration of 300 mg/L were achieved within 36 h for all tested co-substrates during electricity generation. The decolorization rate was different with the co-substrates used. The fastest decolorization rate was achieved with glucose followed by ethanol and sodium acetate. Accumulated intermediates were observed during Congo red degradation which was demonstrated by UV-Visible spectra and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Electricity generation was sustained and not significantly affected by the Congo red degradation. Glucose, acetate sodium and ethanol produced maximum power densities of 103 mW/m(2), 85.9 mW/m(2) and 63.2 mW/m(2), respectively, and the maximum voltage output decreased by only 7% to 15%. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using various co-substrates for simultaneous decolorization of Congo red and bioelectricity generation in the MFC and showed that glucose was the preferred co-substrate.
微生物燃料电池（MFC）有望直接从各种易降解的有机物质中获取电能，并增强一些难降解污染物的降解。本研究以葡萄糖、乙酸钠和乙醇分别作为共基质，在质子交换膜（PEM）空气阴极单室 MFC 中同时实现生物电能产生和刚果红降解。批处理实验结果表明，在发电过程中，所有测试的共基质都能在 36 小时内将 300mg/L 的染料浓度下的染料脱色率达到 98%以上。不同共基质的脱色率不同，葡萄糖的脱色率最快，其次是乙醇和乙酸钠。刚果红降解过程中观察到了累积的中间产物，这通过紫外-可见光谱和高效液相色谱（HPLC）得到了证明。刚果红的降解并没有对电能的产生产生显著影响。葡萄糖、乙酸钠和乙醇的最大产电功率密度分别为 103mW/m2、85.9mW/m2和 63.2mW/m2，最大电压输出仅下降了 7%至 15%。本研究结果表明，使用各种共基质在 MFC 中同时实现刚果红的脱色和生物电能产生是可行的，并且葡萄糖是首选的共基质。
