مجتبی محسنی

In recent years, due to the energy crisis caused by population growth, industrialization, fossil fuel limitation and environmental pollution, microbial fuel cells are considered as a clean and renewable source of energy. A microbial fuel cell is a bioreactor that converts chemical energy of organic compounds to electrical energy through catalytic reactions of microorganisms under anaerobic conditions. Isolation of the sulfate reducing Shewanella and investigation of its ability to produce electricity were the aims of this study. After collecting the samples from sediments of the Caspian Sea, a sulfate reducing bacterium was isolated, and then its ability to produce electricity was evaluated using microbial fuel cells. The sulfate reducing isolate was inoculated in LB medium and incubated at 30 ºC for 24 hours. Afterwards, the culture was transferred into the anode chamber containing the LB medium. Neutral red was used as an intermediate electron transport and electrodes were made of graphite. Results showed that the isolate was able to produce electricity with a maximum open circuit voltage of 701 mV. In addition, a maximum power density and a maximum current density were evaluated as 140.817 mW m-2 and 395 mA m-2, respectively. The results of this study demonstrated that the Shewanella sp. isolated from the sediments had the ability to produce electricity in microbial fuel cells.