Electricity production and microbial community in psychrophilic microbial fuel cells at 10 °C

Psychrophilic microbial fuel cell (PMFC) offers an alternative method for low temperature wastewater treatment, but is seldom reported. In this study, the two-chamber PMFC was constructed at 10 degrees C using acetate as an electron donor. The maximum voltage under external resistance of 1000 Omega was around 550 mV. The columbic efficiency (CE) was 82.4% under external resistance of 100 Omega and the max power density was 582.4 mW/m(2) . After temperature decreasing to 4 degrees C, the maximum voltage also reached 530 mV and CE was 38.4%. The direct electron transfer was proposed in PMFC according to cyclic voltammetry curves. The short enriching time (similar to 30 days) of biofilm in the anodic electrode may be due to the high activity of enriched novel exoelectrogens of M. fermentans (46.2%) and E. lemanii (15.4%). The development of PMFC involved biotechnologies in low temperature regions shall bene fit for valuable chemicals production and energy generation in the future.