Improvement of the anodic bioelectrocatalytic activity of mixed culture biofilms by a simple consecutive electrochemical selection procedure.
In this paper we demonstrate that the anodic, bioelectrocatalytic performance of wastewater inoculum based, mixed culture microbial biofilms can be considerably improved by using a consecutive, purely electrochemical selection and biofilm acclimatization procedure. The procedure may represent an alternative to a repetitive mechanical biofilm removal, re-suspension and electrochemically facilitated biofilm formation. By using the proposed technique, the bioelectrocatalytic current density was increased from the primary to the secondary biofilm from 250 microAcm(-2) to about 500 microAcm(-2); and the power density of respective microbial fuel cells could be increased from 686 mWm(-2) to 1487 mWm(-2). The electrochemical characterization of the biofilms reveals a strong similarity to Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms, which may indicate a dominating role of this bacterium in the biofilms.
Liu
Ying
Y
Institute of Biochemistry, University of Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Strasse 4, 17487 Greifswald, Germany.
Harnisch
Falk
F
Fricke
Katja
K
Sietmann
Rabea
R
Schröder
Uwe
U
D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D002384:Catalysis; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018920:Coculture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D004566:Electrodes; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D045302:Geobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects