Maximising electricity production by controlling the biofilm specific growth rate in microbial fuel cells

作者：Ledezma Pablo^*; Greenman John; Ieropoulos Ioannis

来源：Bioresource Technology, 2012, 118: 615-618.

DOI：10.1016/j.biortech.2012.05.054

• Microbial fuel cells
• Shewanella oneidensis
• Specific growth rate

The aim of this work is to study the relationship between growth rate and electricity production in perfusion-electrode microbial fuel cells (MFCs), across a wide range of flow rates by co-measurement of electrical output and changes in population numbers by viable counts and optical density. The experiments hereby presented demonstrate, for the first time to the authors%26apos; knowledge, that the anodic biofilm specific growth rate can be determined and controlled in common with other loose matrix perfusion systems. Feeding with nutrient-limiting conditions at a critical flow rate (50.8 mL h(-1)) resulted in the first experimental determination of maximum specific growth rate mu(max) (19.8 day(-1)) for Shewanella spp. MFC biofilms, which is considerably higher than those predicted or assumed via mathematical modelling. It is also shown that, under carbon-energy limiting conditions there is a strong direct relationship between growth rate and electrical power output, with fin coinciding with maximum electrical power production.

• 出版日期2012-8