1887

Abstract

Microbial oxidation of elemental sulfur with an electrode serving as the electron acceptor is of interest because this may play an important role in the recovery of electrons from sulfidic wastes and for current production in marine benthic microbial fuel cells. Enrichments initiated with a marine sediment inoculum, with elemental sulfur as the electron donor and a positively poised (+300 mV versus Ag/AgCl) anode as the electron acceptor, yielded an anode biofilm with a diversity of micro-organisms, including and species. Further enrichment of the anode biofilm inoculum in medium with elemental sulfur as the electron donor and Fe(III) oxide as the electron acceptor, followed by isolation in solidified sulfur/Fe(III) medium yielded a strain of , designated strain TZ1. Strain TZ1 effectively oxidized elemental sulfur to sulfate with an anode serving as the sole electron acceptor, at rates faster than , the only other organism in pure culture previously shown to oxidize S° with current production. The abundance of species enriched on the anodes of marine benthic fuel cells has previously been interpreted as acetate oxidation driving current production, but the results presented here suggest that sulfur-driven current production is a likely alternative.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Office of Naval Research (Award N00014-13-1-0550)
  • the Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E), US Department of Energy (Award DE-AR0000159 and DE-AR0000087)
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2014-01-01
2024-03-29
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