Heterotrophic anodic denitrification (HAD) in the single-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a promising nitrogen removal technology. In this paper, the benefit (anolyte pH increase) and challenge (substrate consumption) brought by the heterotrophic anodic denitrification process for the electricity generation of bufferless MFCs were studied for the first time. Substrate anaerobic hydrolysis dramatically decreased the anolyte pH to 5.1, which seriously restricted the electric power output of the Control. The anolyte pH of the heterotrophic anodic denitrification MFCs (HADMFCs) with 60 mg/L (HADMFC-60), 90 mg/L (HADMFC-90), and 120 mg/L (HADMFC-120) nitrate nitrogen (NO3--N), retained above 6.0, 6.5, and 6.8 in every running cycles, due to the protons (H+) consumption by nitrate reduction. In the HADMFC-60 and HADMFC-90, 17.6% and 26.1% of the total organic carbons (TOC) were used for the nitrate reduction, but their electric power output significantly increased. The maximum power densities of the HADMFC-60 and HADMFC-90 were 3.3 and 5.4 times higher than that of the Control. However, when the proportion of TOC consumption for nitrate reduction increased to 35.8%, substrate insufficiency became a serious limitation for the electricity generation. The Pmax of the HADMFC-120 dramatically decreased to 17.3 mW/m2. Dysgonomonas was the dominant electro-active genus, and Petrimonas, Acidovorax and Devosia appeared as the denitrifying bacteria genera.
Keywords: Anode acidification; Bufferless; Heterotrophic anodic denitrification (HAD); Microbial fuel cell (MFC); pH control.
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