Journal
BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY
Volume 101, Issue 4, Pages 1233-1238Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2009.09.054
Keywords
Community fingerprinting; DGGE; Microbial fuel cell; Sludge hydrolysate; Volatile fatty acids
Funding
- EU [036845, SUSTDEV-2005-3.II.3.2, FP6-2005-Global-4]
- ARC [DP0879245, DP0666927]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Strategies are being developed to harvest the energy content of the wasted sludge generated from the treatment of domestic wastewater. Sludge can be hydrolysed and fermented, giving a mixture of volatile fatty acids (VFAs). Based on the composition of such a fermented stream, synthetic media were created and tested for VFA conversion in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Mainly acetate and propionate were preferred as electron donors in the mixed VFA system, which generated a power density of 49 +/- 1 mW L-NAC(-1). The other VFAs (butyrates/valerates/caproic acid) were also removed, albeit at lower rates. In single VFA tests, each VFA could be removed, but particularly i-butyrate did not provide significant current generation. PCR-DGGE indicated that the microbial community structure was highly determined by the fed VFA, rather than by the initial inoculum. The communities were dominated by Proteobacteria such as Geobacter, Comamonas, Pseudomonas and Pelobacter species. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using fatty acids, as present in fermented sludge hydrolysates, for current generation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available