Chapter 12 - Application of biological fuel cell in wastewater treatment

Abstract

Biological fuel cell (BFC) systems have been potentially studied as a promising technology for the removal of environmental pollutants and bioelectricity production. The BFC systems are interesting and persistently expanding fields of science and technology. These emerging technologies, coupled with anodic biological metabolisms and electrochemical reactions, are considered suitable alternatives. Recently, great attention has been paid to BFCs due to special features such as low air requirements, small amounts of wastes, high efficiency, and energy production, which make BFCs outstanding compared to the existing technologies. Despite the advantages of this technology, there are still limitations, such as the production of low current density, the regulation of the temperature conditions of electrogenic bacteria, the clogging of cationic membranes, and the high cost of electrode materials. BFCs vs other conventional wastewater treatment methods, still need further improvement in order to facilitate their large-scale application. This chapter describes the general features of the BFC system and introduced some operational parameters affecting the performance of the BFC system. In addition, the results of published research on the removal of diverse environmental pollutants and industrial pollutant treatment and carbon and nutrients from municipal wastewater in the BFC system are presented. Some potential challenges and prospects for the future are presented, such as suitable methods for improving the current generation, selection of electrode materials with stable performance, cost reduction methods, and full-scale application. Therefore, the present study mainly has shown that the BFC system is an environmentally friendly technology for integrated wastewater treatment and clean energy production and can also be combined with other conventional methods of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment.