Abstract
Increasing the ionic strength of the electrolyte in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) can remarkably increase power output due to the reduction of internal resistance. However, only a few bacterial strains are capable of producing electricity at a very high ionic strength. In this report, we demonstrate a newly isolated strain EP1, belonging to Shewanella marisflavi based on polyphasic analysis, which could reduce Fe(III) and generate power at a high ionic strength of up to 1,488 mM (8% NaCl) using lactate as the electron donor. Using this bacterium, a measured maximum power density of 3.6 mW/m2 was achieved at an ionic strength of 291 mM. The maximum power density was increased by 167% to 9.6 mW/m2 when ionic strength was increased to 1,146 mM. However, further increasing the ionic strength to 1,488 mM resulted in a decrease in power density to 5.2 mW/m2. Quantification of the internal resistance distribution revealed that electrolyte resistance was greatly reduced from 1,178 to 50 Ω when ionic strength increased from 291 to 1,488 mM. These results indicate that isolation of specific bacterial strains can effectively improve power generation in some MFC applications.
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This work was supported by the China Ocean Mineral Resources R & D Association (DYXM-115-02-2-15 and DYXM-115-02-2-04) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40876070).
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Huang, J., Sun, B. & Zhang, X. Electricity generation at high ionic strength in microbial fuel cell by a newly isolated Shewanella marisflavi EP1. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 85, 1141–1149 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-009-2259-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-009-2259-2