| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Energy Frontiers Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session EN-ThP |
| Session: | Energy Frontiers Poster Session |
| Presenter: | Oresta Vasyliv, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine |
| Authors: | O.M. Vasyliv, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine O.I. Bilyy, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine S.O. Hnatush, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are able to capture the electrons produced during different biochemical microbial processes to generate electricity. They offer the promise of a new sustainable source of energy, produced from biodegradable and reduced compounds. Increased shortcoming of unrenewable fossil fuels causes the need for it’s less dendence. The enhance of use of renewable fuels requires the development of alternative sources of energy such as waste biomass for environmental benefits. MFCs investigations have attracted substantial interest in development of different devices for generating electricity and removing wastes. The development of processes that can apply bacteria of normal environmental microflora to produce electricity represents a highly effective method for bioenergy production as bacteria are self-replicating, and thus the catalysts for organic matter oxidation are self-sustaining.
Nowadays MFCs is considered to be applied as highly effective and self-sustaining model of wastewater treatment which contains energy in the form of biodegradable organic matter. At the same time wastewater contains high concentrations of xenobiotics, such as different heavy metal ions that have an overwhelming harmful effect towards all living organisms. These elements even in small concentration in the environment cause the intensive inhibiton of physiological and biochemical properties of most bacteria. Despite that, some genuses of bacteria possess high toxic heavy metals resistance because of highly-efficient defensive systems functioning. There are Feroplasma, Streptomyces, Thiobacillus etc.
Desulfuromonas acetoxidans are uncoloured gram-negative sulfur-reducing bacteria. These bacteria are considered to be used as the substrate for microbial-anode fuel cells with high electron recovery, which is more than 80%, to electric current by the interaction between proceses of acetate oxidation and S0 or Fe3+ - reduction. Sulfurbacteria have a great effect on the biogeochemistry of aquatic environments because of their ability to reduce and precipitate toxic heavy metals compounds. It’s a result of their particular binding with the final product of bacterial dissimilative sulfur-reduction – H2S, and formation of the unsoluble metal sulfides. It also serves as self-defensive mechanism of these bacteria against toxic influence of toxic heavy metal ions.
The influence of diferent of Ni2+ and Cu2+ concentrations on size distribution and relative content of D. acetoxidans bacteria during their life cycle on the base of cells’ light scattering properties changes by the new method of measurement has been investigated. The ability of this bacteria to produce electric current in microbial-anode fuel cells under the specific cultivation condition has been shown. Particular heavy metals resistance of D. acetoxidans bacteria has been observed. Distibution curves of the cells’ size distribution changes were in the range from 0.3 to 1.9 µm under the influence of investigated metal ions. The maximum of cells’ size distribution of investigated bacteria was changed from 0.55 to 0.62 µm under the influence of 0.01-10 mM of NiCl2×6H20 and CuCl2×2H20 during five days of bacterial growth.