Author(s)

Rebecca Chung¹, Diane J. Moon², Yoo Na Chang³, David S. Chung⁴, Taekwon Kong⁵, Justin Kim⁶

¹Centreville High School, Clifton, VA, USA.
²The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, Lawrenceville, GA, USA.
³Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, Gangwon-do, Korea.
⁴School of Arts and Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
⁵Department of Chemistry, College of Arts & Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
⁶School of Art & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

The current study has been undertaken to examine the beneficial effect in the power output of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) by adding cellulolytic bacteria Ruminococcus albus (R. albus) into the anodic chamber. Mediator-less H-type MFCs were set up where the anode chamber contained anaerobic digester microorganisms as inocula on finely ground pine tree (Avicel) at 2% (w/v) and the cathode chamber of 10mM phosphate buffered saline conductive solution, both separated by a cation exchange membrane. The functioning of the MFCs for generation of electrical power and the amounts of gaseous byproducts was monitored over a 9-day period. The addition of cellulolytic bacteria caused an increase of average power density from 7.9 m W/m² to19.5 m W/m², about 245% increase over a 9-day period. For both groups of MFCs; with R. albus and the control, the head space gases collected were methane and CO₂. While the methane: CO₂ ratios were found unchanged at 1.7:1 throughout the 9 days of operation, the total gas production increased from 248 mL to 319 mL due to the presence of R. albus addition. This study confirms that whereas the biocatalytic activity of anode microbial population determines the energy production, the addition of external cellulolytic bacteria into anode microbial population can improve and extend the biomass utilization.

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), Cellulolytic Bacteria, Microorganism, R. albus

Chung, R. , Moon, D. , Chang, Y. , Chung, D. , Kong, T. and Kim, J. (2018) The Cellulolytic Bacteria R. albus for Improving the Efficiency of Microbial Fuel Cell. Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems, 8, 36-46. doi: 10.4236/jsbs.2018.82003.