title: The performance of microbial anodes in municipal wastewater: Pre-grown multispecies biofilm vs. natural inocula.
abstract: In this study, different inoculation strategies for continuously operated microbial anodes are analyzed and compared. After 20daysof operation with municipal wastewater anodes pre-incubated with a biofilm of the exoelectrogenic species Geobacter and Shewanella showed current densities of (65±8) μA/cm2. This is comparable to the current densities of non-inoculated anodes and anodes inoculated with sewage sludge. Analysis of the barcoded pre-grown multispecies biofilms reveal that 99% of the original biofilm was detached after 20daysof operation with municipal wastewater. This is in contrast to previous experiments where a pre-grown biofilm of exoelectrogens was operated in batch mode. To implement pre-grown biofilms in continuous systems it will thus be necessary to reveal a window of process parameters in which typical exoelectrogenic microorganisms including model organisms can be kept and/or enriched on anodes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for MEMS Applications, IMTEK - Department of Microsystems Engineering, University of Freiburg, Georges-Koehler-Allee 103, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Joana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Madjarov
authors.affiliation: Institute for Applied Biosciences, Department of Applied Biology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Fritz-Haber-Weg 2, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prokhorova
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for MEMS Applications, IMTEK - Department of Microsystems Engineering, University of Freiburg, Georges-Koehler-Allee 103, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Messinger
authors.affiliation: Institute for Applied Biosciences, Department of Applied Biology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Fritz-Haber-Weg 2, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany; Institute for Biological Interfaces, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, D-76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gescher
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for MEMS Applications, IMTEK - Department of Microsystems Engineering, University of Freiburg, Georges-Koehler-Allee 103, 79110 Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: kerzenma@imtek.uni-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kerzenmacher
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D018441:Biofilms; D004566:Electrodes / Q000382:microbiology*; D045302:Geobacter / Q000502:physiology*; D012722:Sewage; D020592:Shewanella / Q000502:physiology*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Anode; Geobacter; Inoculation; Microbial community; Microbial fuel cell; Pregrown biofilm; Shewanella; Wastewater