Effects of Modified Anodes on the Performance and Microbial Community of Microbial Fuel Cells Using Swine Wastewater

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have emerged as a sustainable technology for wastewater treatment that has potential to recycle bioelectricity from livestock wastewater. The performance of MFCs is influenced by the synergistic effect of anode material with nearby microorganisms. In this study, three identical double-chambered MFCs with different anode carbon clothes using swine wastewater are established. The optimization mechanism of MFC performance is analyzed by anode characteristics, cell performance, and microbial community, respectively. The results show that the surface structure and properties of the anode carbon cloth can be obviously improved by the acid–heat-modified treatment. The community structure of anodic biofilm, which varied with different modification methods, was mainly dominated by Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. These findings demonstrate efficient and simple methods for improving the performance of MFCs based on swine wastewater and may help to explore the influence mechanism of different modified anodes on the exoelectrogens.

Keywords

• microbial fuel cells
• swine wastewater
• modified anodes
• anode characteristics
• microbial community