Microbial community analysis in microbial fuel cell under non-strict anaerobic condition: synchronous generation of power and tobacco wastewater treatment

Tobacco wastewater poses a significant environmental threat due to its toxic constituents, which are difficult to remove using conventional treatment methods. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are promising devices harnessing the catabolic activity of microorganisms to produce electricity with wastewater treatment. In this study, MFCs were constructed to evaluate the performance of tobacco wastewater treatment and electrical energy generation under mildly anaerobic conditions. The MFCs supplied with various additional carbon sources (e.g., acetate, glucose, propionate, and butyrate) exhibited different acclimation capacities for tobacco wastewater treatment. The maximum voltage output of 0.58 V and power density of 193.60 mW/m² were obtained, along with COD removal of 73.4 ± 2.93 %. The microbial community compositions revealed that Trichococcus was highly abundant in the anodic biofilm enrichment stage (7.46 %-21.07 %) and the wastewater treatment stage (16.22 %-36.55 %), which may play an important role in the electrical energy generation. This study firstly demonstrates that MFC is an effective and environmentally friendly technology for tobacco wastewater treatment and electrical energy generation under non-strict anaerobic condition.