Direct Bioelectricity Generation from Sago Hampas by Clostridium beijerinckii SR1 Using Microbial Fuel Cell.

Mohd Azwan Jenol,Mohamad Faizal Ibrahim,Suraini Abd-Aziz,Ezyana Kamal Bahrin,Seung Wook Kim

doi:10.3390/molecules24132397

Mohd Azwan Jenol, Mohamad Faizal Ibrahim + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24132397

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Abstract

Microbial fuel cells offer a technology for simultaneous biomass degradation and biological electricity generation. Microbial fuel cells have the ability to utilize a wide range of biomass including carbohydrates, such as starch. Sago hampas is a starchy biomass that has 58% starch content. With this significant amount of starch content in the sago hampas, it has a high potential to be utilized as a carbon source for the bioelectricity generation using microbial fuel cells by Clostridium beijerinckii SR1. The maximum power density obtained from 20 g/L of sago hampas was 73.8 mW/cm2 with stable cell voltage output of 211.7 mV. The total substrate consumed was 95.1% with the respect of 10.7% coulombic efficiency. The results obtained were almost comparable to the sago hampas hydrolysate with the maximum power density 56.5 mW/cm2. These results demonstrate the feasibility of solid biomass to be utilized for the power generation in fuel cells as well as high substrate degradation efficiency. Thus, this approach provides a promising way to exploit sago hampas for bioenergy generation.

Highlights

Bio-electrochemical systems (BESs) are providing the innovative technologies that utilize the biological redox catalytic activity with the combination of abiotic electrochemical reactions [1,2], which are normally classified based on their applications, such as the generation of energy [3], chemicals and water treatment processes [4,5]
Sago hampas is a great potential biomass produced after the extraction of starch and contains a significant amount of starch materials and fiber [17]
This study evaluated the capability of the microbial fuel cells (MFCs) system in utilizing the solid biomass, sago hampas for the generation of bioelectricity by single culture, Clostridium beijerinckii SR1 in order to be one-step closer to better understanding of MFCs concept

Summary

Introduction

Bio-electrochemical systems (BESs) are providing the innovative technologies that utilize the biological redox catalytic activity with the combination of abiotic electrochemical reactions [1,2], which are normally classified based on their applications, such as the generation of energy [3], chemicals and water treatment processes [4,5]. BESs used for energy generation are known as bio-electrochemical fuel cells, which can be further divided into enzymatic fuel cells (EFCs) and microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent a new platform of technology that converts the chemical energy in biomass into bioelectricity through metabolic activity of electrochemically active bacteria attached to the electrode [6]. The exploitation of bacteria as the electrocatalysts in MFCs has given the capability to directly generate electricity from a various type of substrate, including organic acids (acetate, butyrate, lactate), fermentable sugars (glucose, xylose) and carbohydrates (sucrose, starch) [7]. According to Liu et al [8], the substrate is one of the most important biological factors affecting the overall performance of microbial fuel cells, including bioelectricity generation and Molecules 2019, 24, 2397; doi:10.3390/molecules24132397 www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules

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