Journal of Advanced Chemical Engineering

Abstract

The Effect of Intermittent Limiting Anodic Current Stimulation on the Electro Activity of Anodic Biofilms

Enren Zhang, Qingling Yu, Yongcai Zhang, Keith Scott and Guowang Diao

Electro active biofilms is key components of bio electrochemical systems. Anodic biofilms formed by a potentialadaptive way (i.e., operation with constant external resistance or poised anode potentials) generally lack the ability to adapt to limiting currents. In the present study, a strategy based on intermittent limiting anodic current application was first employed to directly stimulate the current-adaptive growth of anodic biofilms, aiming to obtain electro active biofilms with high current adaptation. Series of intermittent limiting anodic current stimulations exhibit effectiveness for enhancing the electro-activity of anodic biofilms. Porous thick anodic biofilms with less extracellular polymeric substance production could be obtained by series of intermittent limiting anodic currents application from thin biofilms, generating robust anodic biofilms. The high stable power output of 4.35 W m−2 could be achieved with robust anodic biofilms at high working current of 9.5 A m−2. The present study show that current is a crucial factor influencing the performance of electro-active biofilms, suggesting that an alternative current-adaptive method could be developed for the growth of electro active biofilms with high performance.