Use of non-native phenazines to improve the performance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 2474 catalysed fuel cells

One of the bottlenecks to performance of microbial fuel cells (MFC) has been the low electron transfer from bacterial cell membrane or membrane organelle to anode. In this study, the effect of phenazines, a class of secondary metabolites was examined on the power generation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 2474 catalysed MFC with graphite electrodes. Different metal salt-doped graphite epoxy composite electrodes (MS-GECE) were tested in phenazine supplemented MFC. With Cu2+-GECE as anode in oxychloraphin and tubermycin supplemented MFC, power density generated was 7831 ± 112.5 and 2096.5 ± 11.8 μW/m2 respectively. However, the addition of native phenazines (pyocyanin and pyorubin) which are normally produced by the bacteria was not very helpful in performance of the MFC. Also, the addition of these phenazines inhibited the growth of bacteria as well. Thus, choice of an appropriate secondary metabolite can have a positive influence as a mediator of electron transfer in the working of MFCs.