External circuit loading mode regulates anode biofilm electrochemistry and pollutants removal in microbial fuel cells.

This study investigated the effects of different external circuit loading mode on pollutants removal and power generation in microbial fuel cells (MFC). The results indicated that MFC exhibited distinct characteristics of higher maximum power density (P _max ) (named MFC-HP) and lower P _max (named MFC-LP). And the capacitive properties of bioanodes may affect anodic electrochemistry. Reducing external load to align with the internal resistance increased P _max of MFC-LP by 54.47 %, without no obvious effect on MFC-HP. However, intermittent external resistance loading (IER) mitigated the biotoxic effects of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) (a persistent organic pollutant) on chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH ₄ ⁺ -N removal and maintained high P _max (424.33 mW/m ² ) in MFC-HP. Meanwhile, IER mode enriched electrochemically active bacteria (EAB) and environmental adaptive bacteria Advenella, which may reduce antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) accumulation. This study suggested that the external circuit control can be effective means to regulate electrochemical characteristics and pollutants removal performance of MFC.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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