Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells in Relation to Anaerobic Digestion Technology

Abstract

An anaerobic sediment microbial fuel cell (SMFC) is a device that with the help of microbial catalytic activities, simultaneously bioremediate pollutants and transfers chemical energy into electricity. SMFC attracts the attention of many researchers due to its mild operating conditions. In SMFC operation, exoelectrogens and electrotrophs are mostly involved. Although there is the great capacity of SMFC such as an alternative energy source, a biosensor for pollutants and oxygen, and a novel wastewater treatment system, high optimization is needed to accomplish the maximum microbial potential. Power output and Coulombic efficiency are significantly affected by the diversity of microbes in the anodic chamber of an SMFC, design of the SMFC and operational conditions. Until now, real-world applications of SMFC have been limited because of their low power density level of several thousand mW/m2. Efforts are being made to improve this performance and reduce the construction and operating costs of SMFC. To date, most SMFCs have been operated at a laboratory scale. In the future, scaling-up of SMFCs will be required to overcome the many hurdles and tackle the many new challenges. The objective of this study is to investigate the different aspects of optimal design of SMFC, which will be practised at field level.