Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.
Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.
J Hazard Mater. 2015 Mar 2;284:182-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.10.045. Epub 2014 Nov 3.
Inorganic sulfur compounds, such as tetrathionate, are often present in mining process and waste waters. The biodegradation of tetrathionate was studied under acidic conditions in aerobic batch cultivations and in anaerobic anodes of two-chamber flow-through microbial fuel cells (MFCs). All four cultures originating from biohydrometallurgical process waters from multimetal ore heap bioleaching oxidized tetrathionate aerobically at pH below 3 with sulfate as the main soluble metabolite. In addition, all cultures generated electricity from tetrathionate in MFCs at pH below 2.5 with ferric iron as the terminal cathodic electron acceptor. The maximum current and power densities during MFC operation and in the performance analysis were 79.6 mA m(-2) and 13.9 mW m(-2) and 433 mA m(-2) and 17.6 mW m(-2), respectively. However, the low coulombic efficiency (below 5%) indicates that most of the electrons were directed to other processes, such as aerobic oxidation of tetrathionate and unmeasured intermediates. The microbial community analysis revealed that the dominant species both in the anolyte and on the anode electrode surface of the MFCs were Acidithiobacillus spp. and Ferroplasma spp. This study provides a proof of concept that tetrathionate serves as electron donor for biological electricity production in the pH range of 1.2-2.5.
无机硫化合物，如连四硫酸盐，常存在于采矿过程和废水中。本研究在有氧批式培养和双室流动微生物燃料电池（MFC）的厌氧阳极中，在酸性条件下研究了连四硫酸盐的生物降解。所有四种培养物均源自多金属矿石堆生物浸出生物冶金工艺水，在 pH 值低于 3 时，可将连四硫酸盐有氧氧化，主要可溶性代谢物为硫酸盐。此外，所有培养物在 pH 值低于 2.5 时，均可将连四硫酸盐作为末端阴极电子受体，在 MFC 中发电。在 MFC 运行和性能分析期间，最大电流和功率密度分别为 79.6 mA m(-2)和 13.9 mW m(-2)以及 433 mA m(-2)和 17.6 mW m(-2)。然而，低库仑效率（低于 5%）表明，大多数电子被导向其他过程，如连四硫酸盐的有氧氧化和未测量的中间体。微生物群落分析表明，在 MFC 的阳极电解液和阳极电极表面，优势种均为嗜酸硫杆菌（Acidithiobacillus spp.）和亚铁铁菌（Ferroplasma spp.）。本研究证明了在 pH 值为 1.2-2.5 的范围内，连四硫酸盐可作为生物发电的电子供体。
