Geochip-Based Functional Gene Analysis of Anodophilic Communities in Microbial Electrolysis Cells under Different Operational Modes

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Abstract
A microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is a bioelectrochemical system that can produce hydrogen from acetate at high hydrogen recoveries, but the composition and structure of the microbial communities in this system have not been extensively studied. We used a high throughput metagenomics technology (GeoChip) to examine the microbial community functional structure in MECs initially operated under different conditions. We found that startup conditions had little or no effect on reactor performance in terms of Coulombic efficiencies (CEs) and COD removals, somewhat greater effects on CO2 and CH4 production, and very large effects on hydrogen production. Hydrogen yields were generally higher for reactors that were always operated as MECs than those initially operated as MFCs. Hydrogen yields were nine times larger for MEC reactors with an applied voltage of 0.7 V (64%∼80% efficiencies) than 0.3 V (Geobacter, Shewanella, Desulfovibrio, and Anaeromyxobacter) were found in these systems, but their importance in determining reactor functional performance was not supported with a high confidence in our statistical analysis.

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