Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu, 41566, Republic of Korea.
Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, Republic of Korea.
Chemosphere. 2017 Dec;189:134-142. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.09.048. Epub 2017 Sep 13.
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been widely investigated for organic-based waste/substrate conversion to electricity. However, toxic compounds such as heavy metals are ubiquitous in organic waste and wastewater. In this work, a sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB)-enriched anode is used to study the impact of Cu on MFC performance. This study demonstrates that MFC performance is slightly enhanced at concentrations of up to 20 mg/L of Cu, owing to the stimulating effect of metals on biological reactions. Cu removal involves the precipitation of metalloids out of the solution, as metal sulfide, after they react with the sulfide produced by SRB. Simultaneous power generation of 224.1 mW/m at lactate COD/SO mass ratio of 2.0 and Cu of 20 mg/L, and high Cu removal efficiency, at >98%, are demonstrated in the anodic chamber of a dual-chamber MFC. Consistent MFC performance at 20 mg/L of Cu for ten successive cycles shows the excellent reproducibility of this system. In addition, total organic content and sulfate removal efficiencies greater than 85% and 70%, respectively, are achieved up to 20 mg/L of Cu in 48 h batches. However, higher metal concentration and very low pH at <4.0 inhibit the SRB MFC system. Microbial community analysis reveals that Desulfovibrio is the most abundant SRB in anode biofilm at the genus level, at 38.1%. The experimental results demonstrate that biological treatment of low-concentration metal-containing wastewater with SRB in MFCs can be an attractive technique for the bioremediation of this type of medium with simultaneous energy generation.
微生物燃料电池（MFC）已被广泛研究用于将有机废物/基质转化为电能。然而，重金属等有毒化合物在有机废物和废水中普遍存在。在这项工作中，使用富含硫酸盐还原菌（SRB）的阳极来研究 Cu 对 MFC 性能的影响。本研究表明，在高达 20mg/L 的 Cu 浓度下，MFC 性能略有提高，这是由于金属对生物反应的刺激作用。Cu 的去除涉及到将金属从溶液中以类金属的形式沉淀出来，形成金属硫化物，这些金属硫化物与 SRB 产生的硫化物反应。在双室 MFC 的阳极室中，以 2.0 的乳酸 COD/SO 质量比和 20mg/L 的 Cu 为条件，同时实现了 224.1mW/m 的最大功率输出和 >98%的高 Cu 去除效率。在连续十个循环中，在 20mg/L 的 Cu 浓度下，MFC 表现出出色的重现性。此外，在 48 小时批次中，当 Cu 浓度高达 20mg/L 时，总有机含量和硫酸盐去除效率分别大于 85%和 70%。然而，当金属浓度更高且 pH 值非常低（<4.0）时，SRB MFC 系统会受到抑制。微生物群落分析表明，在属水平上，Desulfovibrio 是阳极生物膜中最丰富的 SRB，丰度为 38.1%。实验结果表明，在 MFC 中使用 SRB 对低浓度含金属废水进行生物处理，同时进行能源生产，是一种有吸引力的技术，可用于此类介质的生物修复。
