Bioelectrodes based on environmentally friendly lactic acid bacteria - physicochemical, biochemical, and electrochemical characterization for their potential application in bioelectrochemical systems

Project coordinator: Magdalena Jarosz

Duration of the project: 2018-2021

 

One of the most significant problems of today’s World is the energy crisis. A constant and significant shortage in energy sources, developing global warming and increasing pollution call for a search for new environmentally friendly sources for energy and remediation technologies. One of the most promising alternatives is bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) – a group of technologies and platforms that utilize microorganisms to catalyze either oxidation or redox reactions happening in the system. Among various setups, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) are the most promising and evolving research areas.

On the one hand, microbial fuel cells are being studied for their potential for energy production. On the other hand, when microbial electrolysis cells are considered, the production of hydrogen or other valuable compounds is possible. Despite an increasing number of systems and solutions proposed in the literature, some drawbacks need to be overcome to work efficiently for the systems mentioned above. Briefly, an anode material, bacteria species, and setup configuration, enabling the highest possible current generation and/or chemicals production rate must be provided. Additionally, human and environmentally friendly systems would also be a great advantage. Moreover, an understanding of the mechanisms responsible for electron transfer between the microorganism and surface of the electrode is critical.

For the reasons mentioned above, a novel and promising bioanode based on metal/polycation substrate with human and environmentally friendly lactic acid bacteria (LAB) biofilm is proposed for the first time. Therefore, the main aim of this project is to synthesize and comprehensively characterize bioanodes and to investigate mechanisms occuring at the electrode surface/biofilm interface. It is hypothesized that by combining electrochemical and biochemical methods, the determination of the electron transfer mechanism and an influence of several parameters on the system's performance will be possible.

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the synthesis pathway of the novel bioanodes.

 

The results obtained within this project will give an upright description of the novel, environmentally friendly bioanodes that may potentially be used in bioelectochemical systems. Furthermore, an insight into processes happening at the electrode/microorganism interface may be crucial when planning the construction of microorganism-based systems for energy or chemical production.

The results of our research may be foud in the following articles:

 

 

M. Jarosz, J. Grudzień, K. Kamiński, K. Gawlak, K. Wolski, M. Nowakowska, G.D. Sulka, Novel bioelectrodes based on polysaccharide modified gold surfaces and electrochemically active Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG biofilms, Electrochimica Acta, 296 (2019) 999-1008.