title: Determination of Microbial Growth by Protein Assay in an Air-Cathode Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell.
abstract: Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have gathered attention as a novel bioenergy technology to simultaneously treat wastewater with less sludge production than the conventional activated sludge system. In two different operations of the MFC and aerobic process, microbial growth was determined by the protein assay method and their biomass yields using real wastewater were compared. The biomass yield on the anode electrode of the MFC was 0.02 g-COD-cell/g- COD-substrate and the anolyte planktonic biomass was 0.14 g-COD-cell/g-COD-substrate. An MFC without anode electrode resulted in the biomass yield of 0.07 ± 0.03 g-COD-cell/g-COD-substrate, suggesting that oxygen diffusion from the cathode possibly supported the microbial growth. In a comparative test, the biomass yield under aerobic environment was 0.46 ± 0.07 g-COD-cell/g-COD-substrate, which was about 3 times higher than the total biomass value in the MFC operation.
authors: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si 446-701, Republic of Korea.
authors: Na
authors: N
authors: Li
authors: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si 446-701, Republic of Korea.
authors: Ramesh
authors: R
authors: Kakarla
authors: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si 446-701, Republic of Korea.
authors: Jung Mi
authors: JM
authors: Moon
authors: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si 446-701, Republic of Korea.
authors: Booki
authors: B
authors: Min
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D000388:Air; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D018533:Biomass; D004566:Electrodes / Q000382:microbiology*; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins
keywords: Aerobic process; Biomass yield; Microbial fuel cell; Microbial growth; Wastewater