Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36380346›Full record

ArticleBiotechnology for biofuels and bioproducts2022

Optimization of soil microbial fuel cell for sustainable bio-electricity production: combined effects of electrode material, electrode spacing, and substrate feeding frequency on power generation and microbial community diversity.

Imologie Meshack Simeon, Alfons Weig, Ruth Freitag

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Article in Biotechnology for biofuels and bioproducts, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

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6citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Imologie Meshack SimeonProcess Biotechnology & Center for Energy Technology (ZET), University of Bayreuth, 95447, Bayreuth, Germany. meshack.simeon@uni-bayreuth.de.
Alfons WeigGenomics & Bioinformatics, University of Bayreuth, 95447, Bayreuth, Germany.
Ruth FreitagProcess Biotechnology & Center for Energy Technology (ZET), University of Bayreuth, 95447, Bayreuth, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMicrobial fuel cells (MFCs) are among the leading research topics in the field of alternative energy sources due to their multifunctional potential. However, their low bio-energy production rate and unstable performance limit their application in the real world. Therefore, optimization is needed to deploy MFCs beyond laboratory-scale experiments. In this study, we investigated the combined influence of electrode material (EM), electrode spacing (ES), and substrate feeding interval (SFI) on microbial community diversity and the electrochemical behavior of a soil MFC (S-MFC) for sustainable bio-electricity generation.

resultsTwo EMs (carbon felt (CF) and stainless steel/epoxy/carbon black composite (SEC)) were tested in an S-MFC under three levels of ES (2, 4, and 8 cm) and SFI (4, 6, and 8 days). After 30 days of operation, all MFCs achieved open-circuit voltage in the range of 782 + 12.2 mV regardless of the treatment. However, the maximum power of the SEC-MFC was 3.6 times higher than that of the CF-MFC under the same experimental conditions. The best solution, based on the interactive influence of the two discrete variables, was obtained with SEC at an ES of 4.31 cm and an SFI of 7.4 days during an operating period of 66 days. Analysis of the experimental treatment effects of the variables revealed the order SFI < ES < EM, indicating that EM is the most influential factor affecting the performance of S-MFC. The performance of S-MFC at a given ES value was found to be dependent on the levels of SFI with the SEC electrode, but this interactive influence was found to be insignificant with the CF electrode. The microbial bioinformatic analysis of the samples from the S-MFCs revealed that both electrodes (SEC and CF) supported the robust metabolism of electroactive microbes with similar morphological and compositional characteristics, independent of ES and SFI. The complex microbial community showed significant compositional changes at the anode and cathode over time.

conclusionThis study has demonstrated that the performance of S-MFC depends mainly on the electrode materials and not on the diversity of the constituent microbial communities. The performance of S-MFCs can be improved using electrode materials with pseudocapacitive properties and a larger surface area, instead of using unmodified CF electrodes commonly used in S-MFC systems.

Indexed as

Electrode spacingMaterialOptimizationSoil microbial fuel cellSubstrateSustainable bio-electricity

Identifiers

PMID36380346
PMCPMC9667596

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.