Effect of electricity on microbial community of microbial fuel cell simultaneously treating sulfide and nitrate

• Effect of electricity on microbial community on sulfide and nitrate removal was studied in MFC.
• All of four MFCs showed similar good capacity to remove substrate simultaneously.
• The MFCs displayed different characteristics in electricity generation.
• Significant correlation was existed between Richness of community and generated electricity.
• PCA showed that the two MFCs suffered current shock showed similar suspension communities.

The effect of electric current on microbial community is explored in Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) simultaneously treating sulfide and nitrate. The MFCs are operated under four different conditions which exhibited different characteristics of electricity generation. In batch mode, MFCs generate intermittently high current pulses in the beginning, and the current density is instable subsequently, while the current density of MFCs in continuous mode is relatively stable. All operational parameters show good capacity for substrate removal, and nitrogen and sulfate were the main reaction products. Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) analysis is employed to obtain profiles of the bacterial communities present in inoculum and suspension of four MFCs. Based on the community diversity indices and Spearman correlation analyses, significant correlation exists between Richness of the community of anode chamber and the electricity generated, while no strong correlation is evident between other indexes (Shannon index, Simpson index and Equitability index) and the electricity. Additionally, the results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) suggest that MFCs suffering from current shock have similar suspension communities, while the others have diverse microbial communities.