Abstract
The conventional Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) method takes five days to analyze samples. A microbial fuel cell (MFC) may be an alternate tool for rapid BOD determination in water. However, a MFC biosensor for continuous BOD measurements of water samples is still unavailable. In this study, a MFC biosensor inoculated with known mixed cultures was used to determine the BOD concentration. Effects of important parameters on establishing a calibration curve between the BOD concentration and output signal from the MFC were evaluated. The results indicate monosaccharides were good fuel, and methionine, phenylalanine, and ethanol were poor fuels for electricity generation by the MFC. Ions in the influent did not significantly affect the MFC performance. CN− in the influent could alleviate the effect of antagonistic electron acceptors on the MFC performance. The regression equation for BOD concentration and current density of the biosensor was y = 0.0145x + 0.3317. It was adopted to measure accurately and continuously the BOD concentration in actual water samples at an acceptable error margin. These results clearly show the developed MFC biosensor has great potential as an alternative BOD sensing device for online measurements of wastewater BOD.
Highlights
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is an international regulatory environment index for monitoring biodegradable organic pollutants in water
The microbial fuel cell (MFC) biosensor for BOD measurement was inoculated with Thermincola carboxydiphila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Ochrobactrum intermedium, Shewanella frigidimarina, Citrobacter freundii, and Clostridium acetobutylicum, which were isolated from the original MFC biosensor
Various organic compounds in the MFC influent resulted in generation of different amounts of electricity due to different metabolic pathways, even at the same BOD concentration in the influent
Summary
BOD is an international regulatory environment index for monitoring biodegradable organic pollutants in water. Continuous monitoring of organic loads is very important in order to comply with regulatory requirements. A rapid method for online or in situ analysis of organic loads is a desirable option, as opposed to a five-day test using the conventional BOD method [1]. Several researchers have developed biosensors based on dissolved oxygen (DO) probes and immobilized cells for use as the biological recognition element [2]. Such systems generally give a good relationship between the output signal and BOD concentration, but may suffer from unstable operation [3]
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