Electricity production from and biodegradation of quinoline in the microbial fuel cell

Abstract

Quinoline has become one of the common contaminants in groundwater and soil, discharged from the process of coal tar distillation and creosote wood preservation, as well as fossil fuel facilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of electricity production from and biodegradation of quinoline in the microbial fuel cell (MFC). Experiments were conducted in the MFC using an initial 500 mg/L quinoline with different glucose concentrations as substrates. Results showed maximum voltages of 558, 469, and 328 mV for the substrates with ratios of quinoline to glucose of 1:1, 5:3, 5:1, respectively. The MFC accomplished complete quinoline biodegradation within 6 h. Experiments were then conducted using 200 mg/L quinoline only as the MFC fuel, resulting in the maximal voltage of 145 mV and maximal power density of 16.4 mW/m². GC/MS analyses showed that 2(1H)quinolinone accumulated in the anode solution and later disappeared. The results clearly demonstrated the feasibility to use quinoline as the MFC fuel to generate electricity and enhance quinoline biodegradation simultaneously.

Keywords:

• MFC
• power generation
• quinoline biodegradation
• glucose

Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by grants from the Research Fund Program of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology (No. 2006K0007), the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 50608070 and 50779080), and Special Funds of State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (08K02ESPCT).