Organic content influences sediment microbial fuel cell performance and community structure.
This study constructed sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) with different organic loadings without the amendment of external substrates, and it investigated how such variation affects electricity generation and microbial community structure. Results found sediment characteristics significantly influenced SMFC performance and appropriate organic content is important to maintain stable power outputs. SMFCs with loss of ignition (LOI) of 5% showed the most reliable performance in this study, while high organic content (LOI 10-16%) led to higher but very unstable voltage output because of biogas accumulation and worm activities. SMFCs with low organic content (1-3%) showed low power output. Different bacterial communities were found in SMFCs shown various power generation performance even those with similar organic contents. Thermodesulfovibrionaceae was found closely related to the system startup and Desulfobulbaceae showed great abundance in SMFCs with high power production.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Yaguan Road 135, Tianjin 300350, China. Electronic address: zhaoqing08@tju.edu.cn.
Qing
Q
Zhao
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Yaguan Road 135, Tianjin 300350, China. Electronic address: liruying@tju.edu.cn.
Ruying
R
Li
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Yaguan Road 135, Tianjin 300350, China. Electronic address: jimin@tju.edu.cn.
Min
M
Ji
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. Electronic address: zhiyong.ren@colorado.edu.
Zhiyong Jason
ZJ
Ren
D001105:Archaea / Q000378:metabolism*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D018441:Biofilms; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D005561:Formates / Q000378:metabolism; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000032:analysis*; D010802:Phylogeny; D025341:Principal Component Analysis
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005561:Formates; D009930:Organic Chemicals; C030544:formic acid
Biogas accumulation; High-throughput sequencing; Microbial community; Organic matter content; Sediment microbial fuel cell