Electrospun Nanofibers: from Food to Energy by Engineered Electrodes in Microbial Fuel Cells.

Giulia Massaglia,Simone Luigi Marasso,Matteo Cocuzza,Alessandro Chiadò,Adriano Sacco,Candido F Pirri,Marzia Quaglio,Francesca Frascella

doi:10.3390/nano10030523

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical devices able to directly transduce chemical energy, entrapped in an organic mass named fuel, into electrical energy through the metabolic activity of specific bacteria. During the last years, the employment of bio-electrochemical devices to study the wastewater derived from the food industry has attracted great interest from the scientific community. In the present work, we demonstrate the capability of exoelectrogenic bacteria used in MFCs to catalyze the oxidation reaction of honey, employed as a fuel. With the main aim to increase the proliferation of microorganisms onto the anode, engineered electrodes are proposed. Polymeric nanofibers, based on polyethylene oxide (PEO-NFs), were directly electrospun onto carbon-based material (carbon paper, CP) to obtain an optimized composite anode. The crucial role played by the CP/PEO-NFs anodes was confirmed by the increased proliferation of microorganisms compared to that reached on bare CP anodes, used as a reference material. A parameter named recovered energy (Erec) was introduced to determine the capability of bacteria to oxidize honey and was compared with the Erec obtained when sodium acetate was used as a fuel. CP/PEO-NFs anodes allowed achieving an Erec three times higher than the one reached with a bare carbon-based anode.

Highlights

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical devices that directly convert the chemical energy embedded in an organic compound into electrical energy by the metabolic action of a particular class of microorganisms, named exo-electrogens.Basically, the process is based on the ability of exo-electrogens to oxidize organic matter, acting as carbon energy sources [1], and to directly transfer the produced electrons outside their cells exogenously [2]
A carbon paper (CP)/polyethylene oxide nanofibers mats (PEO-NFs) composite anode, based on PEO-NFs directly electrospun onto a carbon-based material, was designed and optimized
We demonstrated that the resulting structure of PEO/NFs greatly promoted microorganisms’ proliferation, suggesting the possibility to employ PEO-NFs as a biomass carrier for bacteria entrapment

Summary

Introduction

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical devices that directly convert the chemical energy embedded in an organic compound (i.e., the fuel) into electrical energy by the metabolic action of a particular class of microorganisms, named exo-electrogens.Basically, the process is based on the ability of exo-electrogens to oxidize organic matter, acting as carbon energy sources [1], and to directly transfer the produced electrons outside their cells exogenously [2]. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical devices that directly convert the chemical energy embedded in an organic compound (i.e., the fuel) into electrical energy by the metabolic action of a particular class of microorganisms, named exo-electrogens. Since MFCs can operate their energy recovery and conversion processes starting from a wide range of molecules, even quite complex, during the last decades, they have attracted an ever-increasing interest for application in the food industry [13]. In this perspective, MFCs can contribute to the overall energetic efficiency of the process by combining the treatment of wastewater streams to energy production. Interesting examples exist, concerning applications in the treatment of brewery wastewater [14,15], olive mill wastewater [16], winery wastes [17,18], and dairy wastewater [19]

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