Heat treated soil as convenient and versatile source of bacterial communities for microbial electricity generation

Abstract: Bacterial communities from heat treated soils are shown to be convenient and versatile biocatalysts for hydrogen mediated microbial electricity generation. The isolation of spore forming species by heat pre-treatment allows the growth of robust hydrogen producing bacterial consortia with which electricity can be generated from a large variety of substrates, including complex carbohydrates. The fermentative hydrogen is efficiently oxidized in the microbial medium at electrocatalytic electrodes coated with platinum – poly(tetrafluoraniline) bilayer (Pt-PTFA) composites. Coulombic yields up to 30% with respect to the maximum biological hydrogen yield of 4 moles H2/glucose unit, and maximum current densities of 170–200mAL−1 were achieved by using chronoamperometric batch and semi-batch experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]