Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2017-03
Simultaneous Power Generation and Desalination of Microbial Desalination Cells Using Nannochloropsis salina (Marine Algae) Versus Potassium Ferricyanide as Catholytes
Power generation and desalination performance of microbial desalination cells (MDCs) were compared using two different catholytes; (1) Nannochloropsis salina, a marine algae and (2) potassium ferricyanide. Three chambered MDCs were constructed. Desalination efficiencies were 45%, 79%, and 46% when the algae was used as catholyte and 46%, 73%, and 16% when KFe(CN)6 was used as the catholyte at (35, 17.5, and 8.25 g/L of NaCl) respective salt concentrations. Chemical oxygen demand removal of anolyte substrate was 85% with algae as the catholyte and 83% with KFe(CN)6 as the catholyte, after 24 h of operation. MDC with the marine algae catholyte produced 384 ± 5 mW/m3 during the first hour of operation while the MDC with KFe(CN)6 catholyte generated 1,532 ± 14 mW/m3. Denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis of partial 16S rRNA genes showed clear differences between desalinating and nondesalinating microbial communities. Microbial community analysis reveals the shape and type of bacteria. Cyclic voltammetry showed reduction peaks for algae −250 mV at a reduction current of −6 mA and for potassium ferricyanide −50 mV and −250 mA. Results successfully demonstrated that the marine algae-assisted biocatholyte can be used for efficient desalination in MDCs, but generates low power compared to the chemical catholyte.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AltschulS.F., GishW., MillerW., MyersE.W., and LipmanD.J. (1990). Basic local alignment search tool. J. Mol. Biol. 215, 403.
2.
BondD.R., HolmesD.E., TenderL.M., and LovleyD.R. (2002). Electrode-reducing microorganisms that harvest energy from marine sediments. Science, 295, 483.
3.
BondD.R., and LovleyD.R. (2003). Electricity production by Geobacter sulfurreducens attached to electrodes. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69, 1548.
4.
BrennerD.J., and FarmerJ.J. (2005). Family I. Enterobacteriaceae. In BrennerD.J., KriegN.R., and StaleyJ.T., Eds., Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, 2nd ed. New York: Springer, p. 587.
5.
CaoX.X., HuangX., LiangP., XiaoK., ZhouY.J., ZhangX.Y., and LoganB.E. (2009). A new method for water desalination using microbial desalination cells. Environ. Sci. Technol. 43, 7148.
6.
ChaudhuriS.K., and LovleyD.R. (2003). Electricity generation by direct oxidation of glucose in mediatorless microbial fuel cells. Nat. Biotechnol. 21, 1229.
7.
ChenX., XiaX., LiangP., CaoX., SunH., and HuangX. (2011). Stacked microbial desalination cells to enhance water desalination efficiency. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45, 2465.
8.
ElMekawyA., HegabH.M., and PantD. (2014). The near-future integration of microbial fuel cells with reverse osmosis technique. Energ. Environ. Sci. 7, 3921.
9.
GadhamshettyV., BelangerD., GardinerC. J., CummingsA., and HynesA. (2013). Evaluation of Laminaria-based microbial fuel cells (LbMs) for electricity production. Bioresour. Technol. 127, 378.
10.
GajdaI., GreenmanJ., MelhuishC., and IeropoulosI. (2013). Photosynthetic cathodes for microbial fuel cells. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 38, 11559.
11.
GajdaI., GreenmanJ., MelhuishC., SantoroC., LiB., CristianiP., and IeropoulosI. (2014). Water formation at the cathode and sodium recovery using microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Sustainable Energy Technol. Assess. 7, 187.
12.
GeiseG.M., CurtisA.J., HatzellM.C., HicknerM.A., and LoganB.E. (2014). Salt concentration differences alter membrane resistance in reverse electro dialysis stacks. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 1, 36.
13.
González del CampoA., CañizaresP., RodrigoM.A., FernándezF.J., LobatoJ. (2013). Microbial fuel cell with an algae-assisted cathode: A preliminary Assessment. J. Power Sources, 242, 638.
14.
GouveiaL., NevesC., SebastiãoD., NobreB.P., and MatosC.T. (2014). Effect of light on the production of bioelectricity and added-value microalgae biomass in a photosynthetic alga microbial fuel cell. Bioresour. Technol. 154, 171.
15.
JacobsonK.S., DrewD.M., and HeZ. (2011). Use of a liter-scale microbial desalination cell as a platform to study bioelectrochemical desalination with salt solution or artificial seawater. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45, 4652.
16.
JuangD.F., LeeC.H., and HsuehS.C. (2012). Comparison of electrogenic capabilities of microbial fuel cell with different light power on algae grown cathode. Bioresour. Technol. 123, 23.
17.
KakarlaR., and MinB. (2014). Photoautotrophic microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus attached on a cathode as oxygen producers for microbial fuel cell (MFC) operation. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 39, 10275.
18.
KarluvaliA., KöroğluaE.O., ManavN., CetinkayaaA.Y., and OzkayaaB. (2015). Electricity generation from organic fraction of municipal solid wastes in tubular 2 microbial fuel cell. (In Press); DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2015.10.042. 156, 502.
19.
KimY., and LoganB.E. (2013). Simultaneous removal of organic matter and salt ions from saline wastewatwer in bioelectrochemical systems. Desalination, 308, 115.
20.
KokabianB., and GudeV.G. (2013). Photosynthetic microbial desalination cells (PMDCs) for clean energy, water and biomass production. Environ. Sci. Process Impacts, 15, 2178.
21.
KokabianB., and GudeV.G. (2015). Sustainable photosynthetic biocathode in microbial desalination cells. J. Chem. Eng. 262, 958.
22.
KumarA., SigginsA., KaturiK., MahonyT., O'FlahertyV., LensP., and LeechD. (2013). Catalytic response of microbial biofilm grown under fixed anode potentials depends on electrochemical cell configuration. Chem. Eng. J. 230, 532.
23.
LeeH.S., TorresC.I., and RittmannB.E. (2009). Effects of substrate diffusion and anode potential on kinetic parameters for anode-respiring bacteria. Environ. Sci. Technol. 43, 7571.
24.
LiuH., ChengS., and LoganB.E. (2005). Power generation in fed-batch microbial fuel cells as a function of ionic strength, temperature, and reactor configuration. Environ. Sci. Technol. 39, 5488.
25.
LiuX.W., SunX.F., HuangY.X., LiD.B., ZengR.J., and XiongL. (2013). Photoautotrophic cathodic oxygen reduction catalyzed by a green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 9, 110.
26.
LiuY., HarnischF., FrickeK., SietmannR., and SchröderU. (2008). Improvement of the anodic bioelectrocatalytic activity of mixed culture biofilms by a simple consecutive electrochemical selection procedure. Biosens. Bioelectron. 24, 1006.
27.
LoganB.E. (2008). Microbial Fuel Cells. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
28.
LoganB.E., CallD., ChengS., HamelersH.V., SleutelsT.H., JeremiasseA.W., and RozendalR.A. (2008). Microbial electrolysis cells for high yield hydrogen gas production from organic matter. Environ. Sci. Technol. 42, 8630.
LuoH., JenkinsP.E., and RenZ. (2011). Concurrent desalination and hydrogen generation using microbial electrolysis and desalination cells. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45, 340.
31.
LuoH., XuP., RoaneT.M., JenkinsP.E., and RenZ. (2012). Microbial desalination cells for improved performance in wastewater treatment, electricity production, and desalination. Bioresour. Technol. 105, 60.
32.
LyonD.Y., BuretF., VogelT.M., and MonierJ.-M. (2010). Is resistance futile? Changing external resistance does not improve microbial fuel cell performance. Bioelectrochemistry, 78, 2.
33.
MehannaM., KielyP.D., CallD.F., and LoganB.E. (2010). Microbial electrodialysis cell for simultaneous water desalination and hydrogen gas production. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44, 9578.
34.
MinkJ.E., QaisiR.M., LoganB.E., and HussainM.M. (2014). Energy harvesting from organic liquids in micro-sized microbial fuel cells. NPG Asia Mater. 6, 89.
35.
MohanS.V., SrikanthS., ChiranjeeviP., AroraS., and ChandraR. (2014). Algal biocathode for in situ terminal electron acceptor (TEA) production: Synergetic association of bacteria-microalgae metabolism for the functioning of biofuel cell. Bioresour. Technol. 166, 566.
36.
OhS.E., and LoganB.E. (2006). Proton exchange membrane and electrode surface areas as factors that affect power generation in microbial fuel cells. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 70, 162.
37.
PandeyP., ShendyV.N., DeopurkarR.L., KaleS.P., PatilS.A., and PantD. (2016). Recent advances in the use of different substrates in microbial fuel cells toward wastewater treatment and simultaneous energy recovery. Appl. Energy, 1658, 706.
38.
PatilS.A., GildemynS., PantD., ZenglerK., LoganB.E., and RabeyK. (2015). A logical data representation framework for electricity-driven bioproduction processes. Biotechnol. Adv. 33, 736.
39.
QuY., FengY., WangX., LiuJ., LvJ., HeW., and LoganB.E. (2012). Simultaneous water desalination and electricity generation in a microbial desalination cell with electrolyte recirculation for pH control. Bioresour. Technol. 106, 89.
40.
RabaeyK., BoonN., SicilianoS.D., VerhaegeM., and VerstraeteW. (2004). Biofuel cells select for microbial consortia that self-mediate electron transfer. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70, 5373.
41.
RabeyK., and VerstraeteW. (2005). Microbial fuel cells: Novel biotechnology for energy generation. Trends Biotechnol. 23, 291.
42.
RaineyF.A., HollenB.J., and SmallA. (2009). GenusI.Clostridium. In De VosP., GarrityG.M., JonesD., KriegN.R., LudwigW., RaineyF.A., et al., Eds. Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, 2nd ed. New York: Springer, pp. 738–830.
43.
RegueraG., NevinK.P., NicollJ.S., CovallaS.F., WoodardT.L., and LovleyD.R. (2006). Biofilm and nanowire production leads to increased current in Geobacter sulfurreducens fuel cells. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72, 7345.
44.
Rismani-YazdiH., CarverS.M., ChristyA.D., YuZ., BibbyK., PecciaJ., and TuovinenO.H. (2013). Suppression of methanogenesis in cellulose-fed microbial fuel cells in relation to performance, metabolite formation, and microbial population. Bioresour. Technol. 129, 281.
45.
Rismani-YazdiH., ChristyAD., CarverS.M., YuZ., and DehorityB.A., and TuovinenO.H. (2011). Effect of external resistance on bacterial diversity and metabolism in cellulose-fed microbial fuel cells. Bioresour. Technol. 102, 278.
46.
Rismani-YazdiH., ChristyA.D., DehorityB.A., MorrisonM., YuZ., and TuovinenO.H. (2007). Electricity generation from cellulose by rumen microorganisms in microbial fuel cells. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 97, 1398.
47.
ShannonM.A., BohnP.W., ElimelechM., GeorgiadisJ.G., MarinasB.J., and MayesA.M. (2008). Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades. Nature, 452, 301.
48.
SrikanthS., MohanS.V., and SarmaP.M. (2010). Positive anodic poised potential regulates microbial fuel cell performance with the function of open and closed circuitry. Bioresour. Technol. 101, 5337.
49.
TorresC.I., Krajmalnik-BrownR., ParameswaranP., MarcusA.K., WangerG., GorbyY.A., and RittmannB.E. (2009). Selecting anode-respiring bacteria based on anode potential: Phylogenetic, electrochemical, and microscopic characterization. Environ. Sci. Technol. 43, 9519.
50.
VologniV., KakarlaR., AngelidakiI., and MinB. (2013). Increased power generation from primary sludge by a submersible microbial fuel cell and optimum operational conditions. Bioprocess Biosyst. Eng. 36, 635.
51.
WilliamsM.M., YakrusM.A., ArduinoM.J., CookseyR.C., CraneC.B., BanerjeeS.N., HilbornE.D., and DonlanR.M. (2009). Structural analysis of biofilm formation by rapidly and slowly growing nontuberculous mycobacteria. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75, 2091.
52.
WüstP.K., HornM.A., and DrakeH.L. (2011). Clostridiaceae and Enterobacteriaceae as active fermenters in earthworm gut content. ISME J. 5, 92.
53.
YuZ., and MorrisonM. (2004a). Comparisons of different hypervariable regions of rrs genes for use in fingerprinting of microbial communities by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70, 4800.
54.
YuZ., and MorrisonM. (2004b). Improved extraction of PCR-quality community DNA from digesta and fecal samples. Biotechniques, 36, 808.
55.
YuanY., ChenaQ., ZhouaS., ZhuangaL., and HuP. (2011). Bioelectricity generation and microcystins removal in a blue-green algae powered microbial fuel cell. J. Hazard. Mater. 187, 591.
56.
ZhangG., WangaK., ZhaoQ., JiaoY., and LeeD.G. (2012). Effect of cathode types on long-term performance and anode bacterial communities in microbial fuel cells. Bioresour. Technol. 118, 249.
57.
ZhuX., YatesM.D., HatzellM.C., RaoH.A., SaikalyP.E., and LoganB.E. (2013). Microbial community composition is unaffected by anode potential. Environ. Sci. Technol. 48, 1352.
