Moving towards practical applications of microbial fuel cells for sanitation and resource recovery

Abstract

Sanitation is the basic quality index of life and proper sanitation practices play a vital role in maintaining the hygienic conditions. Use of human waste (urine and faeces) as a substrate for microbial oxidation is found to be sustainable approach towards improving the sanitation facilities. Advancement in microbial fuel cell (MFC) system towards field-scale application for treatment of human waste is restricted by several technological, social, economical, material science and bio-electrochemical limitations. However, recently developed Pee-power urinal and Bioelectric toilet demonstrated the field-scale applicability of MFC for human waste treatment and simultaneous electricity generation for onsite use. This review mainly focuses on suitability and applicability of human waste as a substrate in MFC to improve the sanitation facilities and also the challenges faced while scaling-up of this system for field applications are being discussed along with possible solutions. Recent advancement towards field-scale application of MFC demonstrated that this technology is getting ready for the commercialization in sanitation infrastructure.