title: Effects of hydraulic pressure on the performance of single chamber air-cathode microbial fuel cells.
abstract: Scaling up of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) without losing power density requires a thorough understanding of the effect of hydraulic pressure on MFC performance. In this work, the performance of an activated carbon air-cathode MFC was evaluated under different hydraulic pressures. The MFC under 100 mmH2O hydraulic pressure produced a maximum power density of 1260 ± 24 mW m(-2), while the power density decreased by 24.4% and 44.7% as the hydraulic pressure increased to 500 mmH2O and 2000 mmH2O, respectively. Notably, the performance of both the anode and the cathode had decreased under high hydraulic pressures. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests of the cathode indicated that both charge transfer resistance and diffusion transfer resistance increased with the increase in hydraulic pressure. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of PCR-amplified partial 16S rRNA genes demonstrated that the similarity among anodic biofilm communities under different hydraulic pressures was ≥ 90%, and the communities of all MFCs were dominated by Geobacter sp. These results suggested that the reduction in power output of the single chamber air-cathode MFC under high hydraulic pressures can be attributed to water flooding of the cathode and suppression the metabolism of anodic exoelectrogenic bacteria.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China. Electronic address: shaoancheng@zju.edu.cn.
authors: Shaoan
authors: S
authors: Cheng
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Weifeng
authors: W
authors: Liu
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Guo
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Dan
authors: D
authors: Sun
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Bin
authors: B
authors: Pan
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Yaoli
authors: Y
authors: Ye
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Weijun
authors: W
authors: Ding
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Haobin
authors: H
authors: Huang
authors: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy, Department of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
authors: Fujian
authors: F
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000388:Air / Q000032:analysis; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D045302:Geobacter / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure
chemical_list: D002606:Charcoal
keywords: Hydraulic pressure; Metabolism suppression; Microbial fuel cell; Water flooding