Abstract
Increasing demand for renewable energy in the backdrop of global change calls for waste valorization and circular economy strategies. Public health concerns and demand for clean energy provide impetus to the development of wastewater based MFC. Wastewater treatment and simultaneous generation of bioelectricity offer a myriad of environmental benefits. Nevertheless, it is pertinent to know the challenges with the microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology to upscale the wastewater based MFC. This paper attempts to critically analyse the processes, application, challenges and opportunities of wastewater based MFCs. A literature survey was conducted to find out the advances in the field of wastewater based MFCs and the focus was to decipher the challenges to the implementation of wastewater based MFCs. Recent developments in MFC technology have improved the power output and studies show that a diverse group of organic-rich wastewater can be treated with MFCs. The developments include improvements in MFC configuration, development of biocatalysts and biocathode, anodic biofilm formation, microbial community interactions, and progress in the organic and pollutant removal. Nevertheless, the MFC technology is replete with challenges about the organic removal rate, power density, electrode performance limiting factors, economic viability, high initial and maintenance cost and difficulty to maintain the exoelectrogens activity in a complex wastewater environment. Opportunities exist in scaling up of MFCs, integration with other wastewater treatment methods and measures to minimise the operating costs. MFCs have the potential to increase the resilience capacity of the sustainable wastewater treatment plant.
Highlights
Increasing demand for renewable energy in the backdrop of climate change realities, human-induced global change and environmental pollution calls for waste valorisation and circular economy [1]
microbial fuel cell (MFC) are a promising green technology that has been found to be applied in wastewater treatment including nutrient removal and recovery, organic removal and pollutant removal [5, 6]
The MFC technology is replete with issues such as low power density, high initial capital investment, difficulty in scaling-up, electrode and MFC configuration, exoelectrogens activity in complex wastewater environment and electrode performance
Summary
Increasing demand for renewable energy in the backdrop of climate change realities, human-induced global change and environmental pollution calls for waste valorisation and circular economy [1]. Growing environmental and public health concerns demand sustainable wastewater treatment [2]. Increasing desire for clean water, resource and energy recovery, pollutant removal led to the development of sustainable green technologies. In this regard, the growth of biological fuel cells is a significant development in the renewable energy paradigm [3]. Biological fuel cells are devices capable of generating electrical energy from chemical energy through the use of biocatalyst and electrochemical reactions. In such type of fuel cells, the organic-rich substrates are oxidized in the anode compartment through the action of microorganisms. This paper provides critical insights about the MFC processes, application of MFCs in wastewater treatment, and challenges of MFC technology
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