Enhanced Power Production from Microbial Fuel Cells with High Cell Density Culture

Improvement of power production in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) with a high cell density culture strategy was developed. By using high cell density culture, the voltage output and power density output of the MFC were enhanced about 0.6 and 1.6 times compared to the control, respectively. Further analysis showed that riboflavin concentration in the MFC was dramatically increased from 0.1 mg/L to 1.2 mg/L by high cell density culture. Moreover, the biofilm formation on the anode surface was significantly enhanced by this new strategy. The increased accumulation of electron shuttle (riboflavin) as well as enhanced biofilm formation contributed to the improvement in anodic electrochemical activity and these factors were the underlying mechanism for MFC performance improvement by high cell density culture. This work demonstrated that high cell density culture would be a simple and practical strategy for MFC manipulation.