Novel gas diffusion cloth bioanodes for high-performance methane powered microbial fuel cells.

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising technology that converts chemical energy into electricity. However, up to now only few MFCs have been powered by gas fuels such as methane and their limited performance is still challenged by the low solubility and bioavailability of gases. Here we developed a gas diffusion cloth (GDC) anode to significantly enhance the performance of methane-powered MFCs. The GDC anode was constructed by simply coating waterproof GORE-TEX cloth with conductive carbon cloth in one step. After biofilm enrichment, the GDC anodes obtained a methane-dependent current up to 1130.2 mA m-2, which was 165.2 times higher than conventional carbon cloth (CC) anodes. Moreover, MFCs equipped with GDC anodes generated a maximum power density of 419.5 mW m-2. Illumina high-throughput sequencing revealed that the GDC anode biofilm was dominated mainly by Geobacter, in contrast with the most abundant Methanobacterium in planktonic cells. It is hypothesized that Methanobacterium reversed the methanogenesis process by transferring electrons to the anodes and Geobacter generated electricity via the intermediates (e.g. acetate) of anaerobic methane oxidation. Overall, this work provides an effective route in preparing facile and cost-effective anodes for high-performance methane MFCs.