Microbial community structure in the biofilm anode of MFC fed with landfill leachate

Abstract

This study describes the kinetics and diversity of anode respiring bacteria (ARB) in a two- chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC) with a Ti-TiO2 electrode and continuously fed with young or old landfill leachate at varying organic strength and hydraulic retention time. With increasing organic loading, current generation increased, although the Coulombic efficiency decreased. The maximum current densities for young and old leachates were 11 and 6 A/m2, respectively. We observed maximum current densities (Jmax) in kinetics modeling 12.0 A/m2 and 8.0 A/m2 for young and old landfill leachates corresponding to low anode potential losses (η) of 0.25 V. A sequencing analysis of anode biofilm community after PCR-DGGE showed that the Deltaproteobacteria family was predominant on anode surface, especially with young leachate.

Keywords

• Anode respiring bacteria
• Biofilm anode
• Kinetics
• Microbial community
• Leachate

References

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