TY - JOUR

T1 - Integrated utilization of waste microbial fuel cells resources for enhanced performance and Cr(VI) reduction

AU - Song, Bo

AU - Wang, Zhibin

AU - Ali, Jafar

AU - Wang, Qi

AU - Wang, Lei

AU - Wang, Jiahe

AU - Li, Jiaxin

AU - Glebov, Evgeni M.

AU - Zhuang, Xuliang

N1 - This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21976197, 42230411, and 42177099), the CAS International Partnership Program (grant number: 121311KYSB20200017), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (E1E40508X2).

PY - 2026/1/1

Y1 - 2026/1/1

N2 - Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) offer a sustainable solution for clean energy generation and organic wastewater treatment. However, the resource utilization of waste MFCs has received limited attention. Here, we effectively repurposed components of waste MFCs to enhance practical performance and environmental treatment. First, using the waste MFC reactors can obtain a fast start-up time and save 42 % of the time compared to new MFC reactors. Microbial community analysis revealed that the waste MFC reactor walls/residual electrolytes harbored a more evenly distributed microbial community, enriched with genera such as Pseudomonas that could secrete electron shuttles to facilitate extracellular electron transfer and might have been responsible for the rapid start-up of the MFCs using the waste reactors. The gene predictions indicated that the anode biofilms were enriched with more anaerobic bacteria, but many of the gene functions and modules were less abundant. Furthermore, the waste anolyte proved to be a valuable inoculum source for the newly built MFCs; the waste catholyte demonstrated efficacy as a reducing agent for Cr(VI), and more than 88 % of the Cr(VI) was reduced. These findings provide a paradigm for the resource utilization of waste MFCs and can be generalized to the whole microbial electrochemical system.

AB - Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) offer a sustainable solution for clean energy generation and organic wastewater treatment. However, the resource utilization of waste MFCs has received limited attention. Here, we effectively repurposed components of waste MFCs to enhance practical performance and environmental treatment. First, using the waste MFC reactors can obtain a fast start-up time and save 42 % of the time compared to new MFC reactors. Microbial community analysis revealed that the waste MFC reactor walls/residual electrolytes harbored a more evenly distributed microbial community, enriched with genera such as Pseudomonas that could secrete electron shuttles to facilitate extracellular electron transfer and might have been responsible for the rapid start-up of the MFCs using the waste reactors. The gene predictions indicated that the anode biofilms were enriched with more anaerobic bacteria, but many of the gene functions and modules were less abundant. Furthermore, the waste anolyte proved to be a valuable inoculum source for the newly built MFCs; the waste catholyte demonstrated efficacy as a reducing agent for Cr(VI), and more than 88 % of the Cr(VI) was reduced. These findings provide a paradigm for the resource utilization of waste MFCs and can be generalized to the whole microbial electrochemical system.

KW - Cr(VI) reduction

KW - Electron shuttles

KW - Microbial fuel cell

KW - Waste electrolyte

KW - Waste reactor

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105010850208

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/0c434a9f-f20d-357b-96d6-42ebf4da2c31/

U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123959

DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123959

M3 - Article

VL - 256

JO - Renewable Energy

JF - Renewable Energy

SN - 0960-1481

IS - Part B

M1 - 123959

ER -