Microbial activity and energy production of terrestrial MFCs in presence of compost and persistent organic pollutants

Terrestrial Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) are gaining great interest in scientific community because of their unique electricity-generating property coupled with removal of organic compounds. In this work, the performance of terrestrial MFCs has been tested in soil alone or amended with compost (Soil+Compost). The results of about 60 day-experiments showed that in Soil+Compost, the activity of the natural soil microbial community, measured as dehydrogenase activity, was significantly higher than in MFCs where only soil was present. Moreover, soil microbial community were located differently between anode and cathode. Higher values of microbial activity were found in compost presence and this result was in accordance with the electrical measurements.