Electricity generation from rice bran in microbial fuel cells

BACKGROUND: Rice bran is a by-product of the rice milling process and mostly discarded in Japan. Although many studies have shown that microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are able to generate electricity from organic wastes, limited studies have examined MFCs for generating electricity from rice bran. FINDINGS: Laboratory-scale single-chamber MFCs were inoculated with paddy field soil and supplied with rice bran for examining electricity generation. Power outputs and microbiome compositions were compared between MFCs containing pure water as the liquid phase (MFC-W) and those containing mineral solution (MFC-M). Polarization analyses showed that both MFCs successfully generated electricity with the maximum power densities of 360 and 520 mW m(−2) (based on the projected area of anode) for MFC-W and MFC-M, respectively. Amplicon-sequencing analyses revealed that Trichococcus and Geobacter specifically occurred in anode biofilms in MFC-W and MFC-M, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that rice bran is a feasible fuel by itself for generating electricity in MFCs.