Electrospun carbon fibers for microbial fuel cells: A novel bioanode design applied to wastewater treatment

Electrospun carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are explored as a potential electrode material for bioanodes due to the advantages of a high specific surface area (surface area per volume), a good conductivity and an architecture and surface adapted to the electroactive bacteria colonization. These electrodes are colonized by exoelectrogenic strains - either the model bacterium Shewanella oneidensis or a wastewater occurring bacterial consortium and are then integrated into a lab-scaled setup. Its electricity output is then screened using a synthetic anolyte or actual wastewaters as a fuel. Overall, electrospun carbon bioanode-based MFCs using a lactate-based synthetic anolyte and a potassium ferricyanide catholyte exhibited significantly better performances (221 W.m(-3) & 0.95.10(3) A.m(-3)) than their counterpart made of commercial control carbon felt. Moreover, this bioanode design was successfully used to produce electrical power from a wastewater anolyte (438 W.m(-3) & 4.4 .10(3) A.m(-3)). These performances were reached even without any further bioreactor internal resistance optimization, demonstrating their promising application for wastewater-based electricity generation. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Electrospun carbon nanofibers show great potential as electrode materials for bioanodes in microbial fuel cells, exhibiting excellent performance and promising applications in wastewater electricity generation.