Hydrolyzed polyacrylamide biotransformation during the formation of anode biofilm in microbial fuel cell biosystem: Bioelectricity, metabolites and functional microorganisms.

The anode biofilm serves as the core dominating the performance of microbial fuel cell (MFC) biosystem. This research provides new insights into hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) biotransformation during the formation of anode biofilm. The current density, coulombic efficiency, voltage, power density, volatile fatty acid (VFA) production and total nitrogen (TN) removal enhanced with the thickening of biofilm (1-6 cm), and the maximums achieved 146 mA·m, 47.3%, 8.76 V, 1.28 W·m, 184 mg·L and 84.6%, respectively. HPAM concentration descended from 508 mg·L to 83.3 mg·L after 60 days. HPAM was metabolized into VFAs, N, NO-N and NO-N, thereby releasing electrons. Laccase and tyrosine/tryptophan protein induced HPAM metabolism and bioelectricity production. The microbial functions involving HPAM biotransformation and bioelectricity generation were clarified. The alternative resource recovery, techno-economic comparison and development direction of MFC biosystem were discussed to achieve the synchronization of HPAM-containing wastewater treatment and bioelectricity generation based on MFC biosystem.