Gábor Márk Tardy1, Bálint Lóránt2, Miklós Gyalai-Korpos3,4, Vince Bakos2, David Simpson5, Igor Goryanin5,6,7. 1. Department of Applied Biotechnology and Food Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Szt. Gellért tér 4., Budapest, 1111, Hungary. gtardy@mail.bme.hu. 2. Department of Applied Biotechnology and Food Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Szt. Gellért tér 4., Budapest, 1111, Hungary. 3. Pannon Pro Innovations Ltd., P.O.B 41, Budapest, 1400, Hungary. 4. BES Europe Ltd, 39 Murányi u., Budapest, 1078, Hungary. 5. Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-Son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa, 904-0495, Japan. 6. School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, 10 Crichton str., Edinburgh, EH8 9AB, UK. 7. Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, 32 West 7th Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin, 300308, China.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Single-chamber air cathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were applied as biosensors for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) measurement of real wastewaters with considerable suspended and/or slowly biodegradable organic content. RESULTS: The measurement method consists of batch sample injection, continuous measurement of cell voltage and calculation of total charge (Q) gained during the biodegradation of organic content. Diverse samples were analyzed: acetate and peptone samples containing only soluble readily biodegradable substrates; corn starch and milk samples with suspended and colloidal organics; real domestic and brewery wastewaters. Linear regression fitted to the Q vs. BOD5 measurement points of the real wastewaters provided high (> 0.985) R2 values. Time requirement of the measurement varied from 1 to 4 days, depending on the composition of the sample. CONCLUSIONS: Relative error of BOD measured in the MFCs comparing with BOD5 was less than 10%, thus the method might be a good basis for the development of on-site automatic BOD sensors for real wastewater samples.
OBJECTIVES: Single-chamber air cathode microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were applied as biosensors for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) measurement of real wastewaters with considerable suspended and/or slowly biodegradable organic content. RESULTS: The measurement method consists of batch sample injection, continuous measurement of cell voltage and calculation of total charge (Q) gained during the biodegradation of organic content. Diverse samples were analyzed: acetate and peptone samples containing only soluble readily biodegradable substrates; corn starch and milk samples with suspended and colloidal organics; real domestic and brewery wastewaters. Linear regression fitted to the Q vs. BOD5 measurement points of the real wastewaters provided high (> 0.985) R2 values. Time requirement of the measurement varied from 1 to 4 days, depending on the composition of the sample. CONCLUSIONS: Relative error of BOD measured in the MFCs comparing with BOD5 was less than 10%, thus the method might be a good basis for the development of on-site automatic BOD sensors for real wastewater samples.