title: Effects of Operating Parameters on Measurements of Biochemical Oxygen Demand Using a Mediatorless Microbial Fuel Cell Biosensor.
abstract: The conventional Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) method takes five days to analyze samples. A microbial fuel cell (MFC) may be an alternate tool for rapid BOD determination in water. However, a MFC biosensor for continuous BOD measurements of water samples is still unavailable. In this study, a MFC biosensor inoculated with known mixed cultures was used to determine the BOD concentration. Effects of important parameters on establishing a calibration curve between the BOD concentration and output signal from the MFC were evaluated. The results indicate monosaccharides were good fuel, and methionine, phenylalanine, and ethanol were poor fuels for electricity generation by the MFC. Ions in the influent did not significantly affect the MFC performance. CN(-) in the influent could alleviate the effect of antagonistic electron acceptors on the MFC performance. The regression equation for BOD concentration and current density of the biosensor was y = 0.0145x + 0.3317. It was adopted to measure accurately and continuously the BOD concentration in actual water samples at an acceptable error margin. These results clearly show the developed MFC biosensor has great potential as an alternative BOD sensing device for online measurements of wastewater BOD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science and Technology, China University of Science and Technology, Taipei 11581, Taiwan. mickey-2068@yahoo.com.tw.
authors.forename: Min-Chi
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science and Technology, China University of Science and Technology, Taipei 11581, Taiwan. cycheng@cc.cust.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Chiu-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, China University of Science and Technology, Taipei 11581, Taiwan. manhailiu@cc.cust.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Man-Hai
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science and Technology, China University of Science and Technology, Taipei 11581, Taiwan. ycchung@cc.cust.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Ying-Chien
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D005947:Glucose; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: biochemical oxygen demand; biosensor; microbial fuel cell; wastewater