Micro-aeration in anode chamber promotes p-nitrophenol degradation and electricity generation in microbial fuel cell. (August 2019) - Khan, Aman
Graphical abstract: Highlights: Aeration promoted PNP degradation and electricity generation in anode MFC. Oxygenase genes were up-regulated at 17.51–39.39-fold in strain LZU-3. Micro-aeration might be an ideal treatment to biodegrade recalcitrant in MFC. Abstract: Biodegradation of recalcitrant organic compounds in microbial fuel cell (MFC) is limited, due to its strong electron affinity and persisted in anaerobic condition. In this study, Pseudomonas monteilii LZU-3 degraded p -nitrophenol (PNP) and generated current at 100 mg L −1 of PNP in anode MFC with the addition of oxygen. The highest PNP degradation was 4, 37.75, and 99.89% in anaerobic, aerobic, and aerated anode of MFC respectively, at 7 h. The maximum voltage generation in aerated anode was 183 mV, which was comparatively higher than aerobic (150 mV) and anaerobic (68 mV). The qRT-PCR results confirmed that the oxygenase genes in strain LZU-3 were up-regulated from 17.51 to 39.39-fold at 1.6–4.5 mg L −1 of oxygen concentrations resulted in PNP degradation in anode MFC. This study demonstrated that supplementation of oxygen into the anode MFC might be a potential approach for biodegradation of recalcitrant compounds and electricity generation.