The microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a green technology that can be used to simultaneously degrade organics and generate energy. In this work, a double-chamber microbial fuel cell (DCMFC) was used to treat molasses wastewater with different concentrations, in batch tests. The results demonstrated that when the COD of the influent wastewater was low (3630 mg/L), the MFC system ran stably for 12 h, the maximum power density reached 3.28 W/m³, the internal resistance was 94 Ω, and a total COD removal efficiency of 88.5% was obtained at the end of the cycle. However, as the influent increased to 9060 mg/L, the performance of the MFC significantly declined due to the accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and low pH. Interestingly, 10 days later the MFC system began to recover: output voltage increased from 209 to 535 mV, VFA declined from 2428.25 to 0 mg/L, and pH increased from 4.83 to 6.98. The microbial diversity of the biofilm on the anode was also investigated using high-throughput sequencing technology in order to clarify the effect of microbials on the treatment efficiency. The dominant microbial genera, such as Azospirillum, Sulfuricurvum, Syntrophomonas and Curvibacter, are highly related to the electron transfer and VFA degradation. In addition, Geobacter found on the carbon felt was responsible for electricity generation. These results demonstrate that MFCs could be an efficient way to treat molasses wastewater, because of its great self-recovery capability.

微生物燃料电池 (MFC) 是一种绿色技术，可用于同时降解有机物和产生能量。在这项工作中，双室微生物燃料电池（DCMFC）被用于处理不同浓度的糖蜜废水，在批量测试中。结果表明，当进水废水COD较低（3630 mg/L）时，MFC系统稳定运行12 h，最大功率密度达到3.28 W/m ³，内阻为94Ω，循环结束时总COD去除效率为88.5%。然而，随着进水量增加到 9060 mg/L，由于挥发性脂肪酸 (VFA) 的积累和低 pH 值，MFC 的性能显着下降。有趣的是，10 天后 MFC 系统开始恢复：输出电压从 209 增加到 535 mV，VFA 从 2428.25 下降到 0 mg/L，pH 从 4.83 增加到 6.98。还使用高通量测序技术研究了阳极上生物膜的微生物多样性，以阐明微生物对处理效率的影响。优势微生物属，如固氮螺菌属、硫磺菌属、嗜热单胞菌属和弯曲杆菌属，与电子转移和VFA降解高度相关。此外，在碳毡上发现的Geobacter负责发电。这些结果表明，MFCs 可以成为处理糖蜜废水的有效方法，因为它具有很强的自我恢复能力。