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Bioelectricity Production with Organic Substrates, Nitrates and Lead Using High Andean Soils

Abstract:

The production of bioelectricity is linked to sintróficos processes, hydrolization and fermentation of complex organic compounds to be used like by-products for the generation of volts of direct current “Vdc”. There is a great variety of substrates, ranging from pure compounds (organic and inorganic) to the complex mixture of organic matter present in wastewater, or inorganic matter of industrial waste. Since 2016, the GIDAC Group has been studying the behavior of a bacterial strain from Páramo soils not intervened at altitudes of 4000 and 4200 masl as inoculum and producer of bioelectricity in different capacities of Microbial Fuel Cells “MFC” of simple configuration with the cathode partially exposed to air. The microbial consortium used in the organic mixture of organic residues of vegetables and fruits demonstrates a complete degradation in fruit waste, which suggests that the preference for waste is easily biodegradable. Of the MFCs positive correlations between the microbial abundance and the generation of electricity were not always observed, obtaining an average voltage of 330Vdc. However, when using inorganic compounds, lower voltage levels were obtained on average of 0.10 Vdc, but the voltage production had a significantly proportional relation to the concentration supplied, the same occurs at the highest concentration of heavy metals, voltage output shows a maximum of 228 Vdc, also achieving elimination efficiencies of 1.71% and 21.35% in 48 h, respectively, which indicates that certain microbial communities produce more bioelectricity if the appropriate substrate is supplied depending on the use and application of an MFC.