Effect of electrode potentials on the microbial community of photo bioelectrochemical systems

Efficient degradation of carbamazepine and metagenomic investigations of anodic biofilm in microbial fuel cells

Environmental contamination with carbamazepine is a considerable global problem. In this study, two-compartment microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were constructed to investigate the degradation performance of carbamazepine, and the degradation mechanism was further explored by using metagenomic analysis. The results showed that MFCs exhibited excellent carbamazepine removal performance and also generated electricity. The removal rate of carbamazepine reached 73.56% over the 72-h operation period, which was 3.09 times higher than that of the traditional anaerobic method, and the peak voltage of the MFCs could reach 416 mV. Metagenomics revealed significant differences in microbial community composition between MFCs and the traditional anaerobic method (p < 0.05), and Proteobacteria (81.57%) was predominant bacterial phyla during the degradation of carbamazepine by MFCs. Among them, the microbial communities at the genus level were mainly composed of Pseudomonas, Pusillimonas, Burkholderia, Stenotrophomonas, Methyloversatilis and Nitrospirillum. Kyoto Encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) metabolic pathway analysis showed that the number of genes related to carbon and nitrogen metabolism increased by 85.12% and 142.25%, respectively. Importantly, a greater number of genes of microbial grown on the surface of anode were assigned to denitrification and the degradation of aromatic compounds. This research provides a cost-effective method for treating wastewater contaminated with carbamazepin.

Degradation of low-concentration perfluorooctanoic acid via a microbial-based synergistic method: assessment of the feasibility and functional microorganisms

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is persistent in the environment. The activities of microorganisms alone are insufficient for the decomposition of PFOA, but microorganisms can contribute positively to the degradation of PFOA in synergistic systems. Herein, a synergistic system combining photocatalytic decay with microbial degradation of the transformation products was applied to degrade 500.0 μg L^-1 PFOA. The microorganisms increased the total removed percentage by 30.7% to a final percentage of 79.7 ± 9.4% in comparison with the photocatalytic method alone. Moreover, an additional 44.2% of removed total organic carbon and additional defluorination percentage of 24.5% were obtained after the synergistic tests. The 16S RNA sequencing analysis indicated that Stenotrophomonas, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Brevundimonas were highly enriched in the functional microbial community, which was simultaneously shaped by photocatalysis and substances. This study found it would be feasible to use a synergistic method containing photocatalysis and a microbial community for the degradation of low-concentrations of PFOA, and the results provided a reference to modified the removal efficiency of the synergistic system by looking insight into the relationship between the functional microbial community and PFOA.

Three-dimensional carbon-based anodes promoted the accumulation of exoelectrogens in bioelectrochemical systems

To achieve deep understandings on the effects of structure and surface properties of anode material on the performance of bioelectrochemical systems, the present research investigated the bacterial community structures of biofilms attached to different three-dimensional anodes including carbon felt and materials derived from pomelo peel, kenaf stem, and cardboard with 454 pyrosequencing analysis based on the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. The results showed that bacterial community structures, especially the relative abundance of exoelectrogens, were significantly related to the types of adopted three-dimensional anode materials. Proteobacteria was the shared predominant phylum, accounting for 55.4%, 52.1%, 66.7%, and 56.1% for carbon felt, cardboard, pomelo peel, and kenaf stem carbon, respectively. The most abundant OTU was phylogenetically related to the well-known exoelectrogen of Geobacter, with a relative abundance of 16.3%, 19.0%, 36.3%, and 28.6% in carbon felt, cardboard, pomelo peel, and kenaf stem, respectively. Moreover, another exoelectrogen of Pseudomonas sp. accounted for 4.9% in kenaf stem and 3.9% in carbonboard, respectively. The results implied the macrostructure and properties of different anode materials might result in different niches such as hydrodynamics and substrate transport dynamics, leading to different bacterial structure, especially different relative abundance of exoelectrogens, which consequently affected the performance of bioelectrochemical systems. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) represent a novel biotechnology platform to simultaneously treat wastewaters and produce electrical power. Three-dimensional materials derived from nature plant as anode to promote electricity output from BESs and reduce the construct cost of BESs. Macrostructure of the three-dimensional anode material affected phylotype richness and phylogenetic diversity of microorganisms in anodic biofilm of BESs. Geobacter as well-known exoelectrogen was the most abundant in biofilm attached to three-dimensional anode.