Tropical mangrove sediments as a natural inoculum for efficient electroactive biofilms

Electrochemical and microbial monitoring of multi-generational electroactive biofilms formed from mangrove sediment

“…The focus on those particular phyla is consistent with previous studies (e.g. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]) when Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the predominant ones constituting the biofilms developed in the microbial electrochemical systems.…”

“…Their conclusions also remind that mangrove sediments represent a source needing further investigation because of its abundant microbial diversity composed of many unknown microbial species [23]. In 2012, Salvin et al demonstrated that electroactive biofilms formed with mangrove sediments from French Guiana could produce a current density of about 10 A/m 2 [20]. However, this study did not permit to give any further explanation regarding the relation existing between the performance harvested and the microbiology of the MESs.…”

“…A screening of several mangroves of French Guiana undergone previously led our interest on this precise location, selected as a potential reservoir of electroactive microorganisms [20].…”

Influence of inoculum and anode surface properties on the selection of Geobacter -dominated biofilms

“…Many locations meet these requirements while varying in other environmental parameters. Previous work has confirmed the presence of exoelectrogenic bacteria in various different environments including freshwater sediments (Chae et al, 2009;Holmes et al, 2004), marine sediments Tender et al, 2002), salt-marshes (Holmes et al, 2004), anaerobic sludge from potato processing (Rabaey et al, 2004), wastewater treatment plants (Kan et al, 2011;Lefebvre et al, 2010), and recently in mangrove swamp sediments (Salvin et al, 2012). Geobacteraceae are usually the predominant microorganisms colonizing the anodes introduced in such environments, with a higher abundance of Desulfuromonas species in marine and salt-marsh sediments; while in freshwater sediments, Geobacter species are the most common Geobacteraceae (Holmes et al, 2004).…”

Methods for enrichment of novel electrochemically-active microorganisms

“…Furthermore, microorganisms in such environments are likely to be associated with solid particles, thus providing a selective pressure for the development of extracellular respiration via EET. Salvin et al (2012) explored tropical mangrove sediments as MFC inoculum, and via electrochemical analysis identified it for the first time as a promising starting material from which to generate current (12 A/m 2 ) using acetate as C source. In a separate study, Nguyen et al (2015) chose tropical mud samples for an EAM enrichment in MFCs at low resistance with Fe (II) as the only electron donor.…”