Membraneless Microbial Fuel Cell: Characterization of Electrogenic Bacteria and Kinetic Growth Model
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 5
Abstract
The generation of electricity in a membraneless microbial fuel cell (ML-MFC) was studied using dewatered sludge containing a mixed culture of electrogenic bacteria (EB). The EB acted as a biocatalyst to enhance the degradation of chemical oxygen demand (COD). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations revealed the formation of a biofilm at the anode surface. Phylogenetic analysis proved the presence of Pseudomonas species and Bacillus subtilis, which actively boosted the electron transfer, in the biofilm. Moreover, three unstructured kinetic models for EB growth, namely the logistic, Kono and Asai (KA), and combined continuous logistic and Fermi (CCLF) models, were proposed and validated. The logistic and KA growth models had high () and low root-mean-square error (RMSE) () values, while the CCLF model showed low values for both (0.48) and RMSE (5.431). The experimental data showed that the logistic model could best describe the growth of EB in the ML-MFC.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Universiti Sains Malaysia for the financial support of this study via the Research University Grant (RUI) (Account No. 1001/PJKIMIA/814267), and also a scholarship (MyPhD) for the first author from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. The authors have declared no conflict of interest for the manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 5 • May 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 25, 2018
Accepted: Oct 24, 2018
Published online: Mar 1, 2019
Published in print: May 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Aug 1, 2019
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