Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) are emerging as a versatile eco-friendly bioelectrochemical system (BES) that utilizes microorganisms as biocatalysts to simultaneously convert chemical energy in the chemical bond of organic and inorganic substrates into bioelectricity and treat wastewater. The performance of MFC depends on the electroactive microorganisms, popularly known as exoelectrogens, the loading rate of organic substrate, pH, MFC configurations, hydraulic retention time, and temperature. In most cases, the performance of MFC can be evaluated by measuring chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency, Coulombic efficiency and MFC power density output. To date, the most common MFC’s reactor designs are single-chamber MFC, double-chambers MFC, and stacked-MFC configurations. Generally, considerable developments in MFC systems for waste treatment, renewable energy generation and resource recovery have been made in the last two decades, despite critical challenges of capital cost investment, and low efficiency for large scale applications are impeding MFC from commercialization. This mini-review chapter provides a comprehensive assessment of principles and configurations of MFC, treatment of domestic wastewater, energy generation, and resource recovery by MFC and challenges of MFC. I believe the information provided in this chapter will enlighten the current and future prospects of versatile applications of MFC during domestic wastewater treatment.

Highlights

  • The demand for sustainable resources and clean energy with minimal resource consumption is increasing because of rapid global population expansion, rising industrial development, high levels of environmental issues and energy insecurity

  • Where U is the output voltage as a function of time (t), R is external resistance in ohms, b is the number of electrons exchanged per mol of O2, equal to 4, COD is the removal of chemical oxygen demand, V is the volume of wastewater in litter in the anodic chamber, and MW is the molecular weight of O2

  • The last parameter used for measuring the performance of microbial fuel cell (MFC) is power density based on electrode projected surface area (PA) or/and power density based on the liquid volume in the anodic or cathodic chamber (PV) and it can be calculated as follow: P 1⁄4 IU, PA 1⁄4 P=A, PV 1⁄4 P=V

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Summary

Introduction

The demand for sustainable resources and clean energy with minimal resource consumption is increasing because of rapid global population expansion, rising industrial development, high levels of environmental issues and energy insecurity. Waste flow is unending in today’s dynamic world; recycling and repurposing waste as a source of value-added materials and clean energy are Sewage - Recent Advances, New Perspectives and Applications the comprehensive and intellectual strategy for the future. This optimistic approach of utilizing wastewater as a source of value-added products and clean energy would save society from energy insecurity and environmental resource depletion from the earth. MFC is a versatile technology and can be used for a variety of applications, including Electric power generation, wastewater treatment, recovery of pure materials, removal of organic matters, water softening, bioremediations, dye decolorization and biosensor [2–5]. Concluding remarks on domestic wastewater treatment by MFC are forwarded

Fundamental principles of MFC
Evaluation of MFC’s performance during domestic wastewater treatment
Domestic wastewater treatment and energy harvesting simultaneously by MFC
Principle of wastewater treatment and energy generation by MFC
Configurations of MFCs for wastewater treatment
Single chamber MFC
Double chamber MFC
Stacked MFC
Resource Recovery from domestic wastewater by MFC
Challenges of MFC for domestic wastewater treatment
Conclusion
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