A Review of Control-Oriented Bioelectrochemical Mathematical Models of Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a potentially viable renewable energy option which promises effective and commercial harvesting of electrical power by bacterial movement and at the same time also treats wastewater. Microbial fuel cells are complicated devices and therefore research in this field needs interdisciplinary knowledge and involves diverse areas such as biological, chemical, electrical, etc. In recent decades, rapid strides have taken place in fuel cell research and this technology has become more efficient. For effective usage, such devices need advanced control techniques for maintaining a balance between substrate supply, mass, charge, and external load. Most of the research work in this area focuses on experimental work and have been described from the design perspective. Recently, the development in mathematical modeling of such cells has taken place which has provided a few mathematical models. Mathematical modeling provides a better understanding of the operations and the dynamics of MFCs, which will help to develop control and optimization strategies. Control-oriented bio-electrochemical models with mass and charge balance of MFCs facilitate the development of advanced nonlinear controllers. This work reviews the different mathematical models of such cells available in the literature and then presents suitable parametrization to develop control-oriented bio-electrochemical models of three different types of cells with their uncertain parameters.