A study of electron-shuttle mechanism in Klebsiella pneumoniae based-microbial fuel cells

In microbial fuel cell (MFC), the rate of electron transfer to anode electrode is a key intrinsic limiting factor on the power output of MFCs. Using Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) strain L17 as biocatalyst, we studied the mechanism of electron shuttle via self-producing mediator in a cubic air-chamber MFC. To eliminate the influence of biofilm mechanism, the anode electrode was coated with microfiltration membrane (0.22 mu m). Data showed that the microfiltration membrane coated and uncoated MFCs achieved the maximum voltage outputs of 316.2 and 426.2 mV after 270 and 120 h, respectively. When the medium was replaced in MFCs that had the highest power generation, the power output dropped by 62.1% and 8.8%, and required 120 and 48 h to resume the original level in the coated and uncoated MFCs, respectively. The results suggested an electron-shuttle mechanism rather than biofilm mechanism was responsible for electricity generation in the membrane coated MFC. Cyclic voltammetric measurements demonstrated the presence of an electrochemical active compound produced by K. pneumoniae strain L17, which was identified to be 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-benzoquinon (2,6-DTBBQ) by GC-MS. 2,6-DTBBQ, as a recyclable electron shuttle, could transfer electrons between K. pneumoniae L17 and the anode electrode.