Abstract
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are emerging as a promising future technology for a wide range of applications such as bioremediation, desalination, production of biofuels/value-added products in addition to sustainable electricity generation. Electroactive (EA) biofilms are the key players in any bioelectrochemical systems including MFCs. They are involved in the catalyzing oxidation/reduction reactions as well as mediating the electron transfer at electrode-electrolyte interfaces. Low power output of the MFCs remains a major limitation in MFCs and biofilm engineering is an ideal option for improving the rates of microbial electrocatalysis. Herein, we critically address the biofilm formation mechanisms in electroactive microorganisms, strategies for improving the biofilm formation leading to improved electrocatalytic rates for applications in bioelectrochemical systems.
Highlights
The inadequate supply of fossil fuels (Demirbas, 2005; Panwar et al, 2011), ever growing population and the escalating energy demand, in the recent years, has become one of the biggest bottlenecks to human survival and economy
Irrespective of their role in wastewater treatment and electricity generation, Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) based biosensors are of great interest in the recent years pertaining to their advantages such as high sensitivity, stability and remote site applicability without electricity supply
This review aims to provide a deep insight on the role of extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) in biofilm formation and the role of biofilm in current generation in microbial fuel cells
Summary
The inadequate supply of fossil fuels (Demirbas, 2005; Panwar et al, 2011), ever growing population and the escalating energy demand, in the recent years, has become one of the biggest bottlenecks to human survival and economy. Compared to other bioenergy conversion processes like anaerobic digestion, gasification and fermentation, MFCs have an added advantage of reduced amounts of secondary pollutants production (Chouler et al, 2016) and cost-effective operation, as they operate under ambient environmental conditions (Park and Zeikus, 2003). Irrespective of their role in wastewater treatment and electricity generation, MFC based biosensors are of great interest in the recent years pertaining to their advantages such as high sensitivity, stability and remote site applicability without electricity supply. MFC-based biosensor devices have been to test microorganism load, BOD, presence of corrosive biofilms, cytotoxic elements and microbial activity monitoring (Yang et al, 2015a)
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