Removal of Toxic Metal Ions from Wastewater Through Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract

AbstractWater pollution is rising through contaminated substances that are a source of serious hazardous alarm to living organisms. Due to increasing population density, factories, industries, loss of water reserves, inappropriate disposal of agro-waste and local daily wastes and other factors, a wide range of contaminants are entering the natural ecosystem. In Malaysia, around 99% of people are using surface water for their life survival due to the presence of different toxic pollutants in water. Few states of Malaysia used ground water for different purposes, i.e. only 1%. Groundwater body pollution is a serious issue for the whole wide at present time. Toxic metals, organic pollutants dyes, etc., are major causes to distribute the aquatic life. Recently, modern research invented a design called microbial fuel cells to remove pollutants from wastewater. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are still an emerging topic because MFCs can generate energy along with wastewater treatment at a low cost. In this chapter, removal of toxic metals through MFC and its applications was discussed to explore the research gap. Despite many developments in MFCs, it still needs more effort to make low-cost techniques by improving their parameters. The present chapter also describes some future perspectives regarding MFCs’ working performance in a practical sense. Reported literature data also revealed that future research must be on environment hazard assessment and aquatic life which is due to the presence of pollutants in drinking water.KeywordsMicrobial fuel cellsToxic metalsDyesWastewater remediationOrganic pollutantMFC applications