Microbial fuel cell as a biosensor to monitor various toxic metal substances in water

Toxicities of twelve kinds of metals were evaluated by using a microbial fuel cell as a monitoring sensor. Tested metals were barium(Ba), beryllium(Be), cobalt(Co), copper(Cu), iron(Fe), manganese(Mn), mercury(Hg), lead(Pb), selenium(Se), thallium(Tl), vanadium(V), and zinc(Zn). Most of the tested metals are not allowed to be present above a certain concentration in drinking water system in South Korea. To evaluate the toxicities of the metals in water, HATOX-2000, a bio-monitoring system, was utilized. Minimum concentration of response of each metal and toxicity values in certain concentration range were determined through the test. The minimum concentrations of response were less than 1.0 mg/L for all the tested metals. The lowest value was observed as 0.1 mg/L for thallium. HATOX-2000 was able to detect the tested metal substances in water system with high sensitivity.