Removal of Hepatitis B virus surface HBsAg and core HBcAg antigens using microbial fuel cells producing electricity from human urine

Grzegorz Pasternak,John Greenman,Ioannis Ieropoulos

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-48128-x

Abstract

Microbial electrochemical technology is emerging as an alternative way of treating waste and converting this directly to electricity. Intensive research on these systems is ongoing but it currently lacks the evaluation of possible environmental transmission of enteric viruses originating from the waste stream. In this study, for the first time we investigated this aspect by assessing the removal efficiency of hepatitis B core and surface antigens in cascades of continuous flow microbial fuel cells. The log-reduction (LR) of surface antigen (HBsAg) reached a maximum value of 1.86 ± 0.20 (98.6% reduction), which was similar to the open circuit control and degraded regardless of the recorded current. Core antigen (HBcAg) was much more resistant to treatment and the maximal LR was equal to 0.229 ± 0.028 (41.0% reduction). The highest LR rate observed for HBsAg was 4.66 ± 0.19 h−1 and for HBcAg 0.10 ± 0.01 h−1. Regression analysis revealed correlation between hydraulic retention time, power and redox potential on inactivation efficiency, also indicating electroactive behaviour of biofilm in open circuit control through the snorkel-effect. The results indicate that microbial electrochemical technologies may be successfully applied to reduce the risk of environmental transmission of hepatitis B virus but also open up the possibility of testing other viruses for wider implementation.

Highlights

Microbial electrochemical technology encompasses several types of bioelectrochemical systems, including but not limited to microbial fuel cell (MFC) and microbial electrochemical snorkels
Some progress has been made to evaluate the sanitary risk related to the pathogenic bacteria present in MFC systems, none of the studies in the field have addressed the survival of enteric viruses in such bioelectrochemical reactors and yet their presence in the environment is directly related to faecal pollution
The experimental setup consisted of 9 MFCs operating in closed circuit (CC) mode and 6 MFCs operating in open circuit (OC) mode as two individually-fed cascades (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

Microbial electrochemical technology encompasses several types of bioelectrochemical systems, including but not limited to microbial fuel cell (MFC) and microbial electrochemical snorkels. The trials for inactivation of hepatitis B surface (HBsAg) and core (HBcAg) antigens revealed their different susceptibility for degradation in MFC setups (Fig. 3A).

Results

Conclusion