Functionally stable and phylogenetically diverse microbial enrichments from microbial fuel cells during wastewater treatment.

ABSTRACT: Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are devices that exploit microorganisms as biocatalysts to recover energy from organic matter in the form of electricity. One of the goals of MFC research is to develop the technology for cost-effective wastewater treatment. However, before practical MFC applications are implemented it is important to gain fundamental knowledge about long-term system performance, reproducibility, and the formation and maintenance of functionally-stable microbial communities. Here we report findings from a MFC operated for over 300 days using only primary clarifier effluent collected from a municipal wastewater treatment plant as the microbial resource and substrate. The system was operated in a repeat-batch mode, where the reactor solution was replaced once every two weeks with

SUBMITTER: Ishii S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3274515 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature