Performance comparison of microbial fuel cells equipped with different membrane electrode assemblies

It is important for practical use of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to not only develop new materials including electrodes and proton exchange membranes but also to understand the bacterial community structure related to electricity generation. Here, four kinds of novel membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) were made. Four lactate fed MFCs equipped with the membranes were characterized by electrochemical, molecular-dependent and molecular-independent methods. MFC1 equipped with Nafion 117-type MEA (18 mu m thickness) exhibited the highest performance. Although the other MEAs with different configurations of three kinds of polymers; poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride), polyallylamine hydrochloride and poly (2-acrylamino-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) had thicknesses of about 0.3 mu m (MEA 2 and 3) and 1.0 mu m (MEA4), their power densities were lower. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and phylogenetic analyses showed that anaerobic bacteria dominated in anode biofilms of MFC1. A bacterium completely corresponding to nucleotide sequence of one of the DGGE bands was isolated from the anode biofilm in MFC1. Interestingly, BLAST search indicated that the bacterium (named strain RO1) belonged to the genus of gram positive bacterium, Propioniferax. It was confirmed that strain RO1 was capable of producing electricity and constructing biofilm on the anode surface in pure culture MFC. These results suggested that the property of MEA affects significantly the bacterial community structure, thereby influencing the MFC-performance.