Oxidation of glucose by syntrophic association between Geobacter and hydrogenotrophic methanogens in microbial fuel cell.

Abstract

To investigate a syntrophic interaction between Geobacter sulfurreducens and hydrogenotrophic methanogens in sludge-inoculated microbial fuel cell (MFC) systems running on glucose with an improved electron recovery at the anode. The presence of archaea in MFC reduces Coulombic efficiency (CE) due to their electron scavenging capability but, here, we demonstrate that a syntrophic interaction can occur between G. sulfurreducens and hydrogenotrophic methanogens via interspecies H2 transfer with improvement in CE and power density. The addition of the methanogenesis inhibitor, 2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES), resulted in the reduction in power density from 5.29 to 2W/m3, and then gradually increased to the peak value of 5.5W/m3 when BES addition was stopped. Reduction of H2 partial pressure by archaea is an efficient approach in improving power output in a glucose-fed MFC system using Geobacter sp. as an inoculum.