Microbial fuel cells: From fundamentals to applications. A review

Recent advances in the use of different substrates in microbial fuel cells toward wastewater treatment and simultaneous energy recovery

Recently, great attentions have been paid to microbial fuel cells (MFCs) due to their mild operating conditions and using variety of biodegradable substrates as fuel. The traditional MFC consisted of anode and cathode compartments but there are single chamber MFCs. Microorganisms actively catabolize substrate, and bioelectricities are generated. MFCs could be utilized as power generator in small devices such as biosensor. Besides the advantages of this technology, it still faces practical barriers such as low power and current density. In the present article different parts of MFC such as anode, cathode and membrane have been reviewed and to overcome the practical challenges in this field some practical options have been suggested. Also, this research review demonstrates the improvement of MFCs with summarization of their advantageous and possible applications in future application. Also, Different key factors affecting bioelectricity generation on MFCs were investigated and these key parameters are fully discussed.

Microbial fuel cell as new technology for bioelectricity generation: A review

Wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cells – an overview

Hydrogen gas has tremendous potential as an environmentally acceptable energy carrier for vehicles. A cutting edge technology called a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) can achieve sustainable and clean hydrogen production from a wide range of renewable biomass and wastewaters. Enhancing the hydrogen production rate and lowering the energy input are the main challenges of MEC technology. MEC reactor design is one of the crucial factors which directly influence on hydrogen and current production rate in MECs. The rector design is also a key factor to up-scaling. Traditional MEC designs incorporated membranes, but it was recently shown that membrane-free designs can lead to both high hydrogen recoveries and production rates. Since then multiple studies have developed reactors that operate without membranes. This review provides a brief overview of recent advances in research on scalable MEC reactor design and configurations.

A comprehensive review of microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) reactor designs and configurations for sustainable hydrogen gas production

Bioenergy is a renewable energy that plays an indispensable role in meeting today's ever increasing energy needs. Unlike biofuels, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) convert energy harvested from redox reactions directly into bioelectricity. MFCs can utilize low-grade organic carbons (fuels) in waste streams. The oxidation of the fuel molecules requires biofilm catalysis. In recent years, MFCs have also been used in the electrolysis mode to produce bioproducts in laboratory tests. MFCs research has intensified in the past decade and the maximum MFCs power density output has been increased greatly and many types of waste streams have been tested. However, new breakthroughs are needed for MFCs to be practical in wastewater treatment and power generation beyond powering small sensor devices. To reduce capital and operational costs, simple and robust membrane-less MFCs reactors are desired, but these reactors require highly efficient biofilms. Newly discovered conductive cell aggregates, improved electron transport through hyperpilation via mutation or genetic recombination and other advances in biofilm engineering present opportunities. This review is an update on the recent advances on MFCs designs and operations. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

Recent advances in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for wastewater treatment, bioenergy and bioproducts

Anode modification by electrochemical oxidation: a new practical method to improve the performance of microbial fuel cells.

Power generation enhancement in novel microbial carbon capture cells with immobilized Chlorella vulgaris

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) have emerged as a potential technology for direct bioelectricity production from organic matters in wastewater streams that are otherwise unutilized. The graphite felt anode modification by nanopolypyrrole (nano-PPy) was carried out via electropolymerization reaction using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electropolymerization trials designated PPy-1, PPy-2 and PPy-3 used 5, 10 and 20 CV cycles, respectively with a scanning voltage ranged from 0 to 0.9 V at a rate of 50 mV/s. The influences of reaction time (reflected by the number of cycles of CV) on the morphology of the polypyrrole films on the anodes and the MFC performance were investigated. The polypyrrole film thickness and particle diameter increased with reaction time. Using the PPy-2 anode, the maximum power density was 430 mW/m2, a 15% increase compared with that of the control (i.e., MFC with an unmodified anode). Furthermore, the Coulombic efficiency and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal also increased after the anode modification.

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Graphite Felt Anode Modified by Electropolymerization of Nano-Polypyrrole to Improve Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Production ofBioelectricity

The world's oil supplies are dwindling. Bioenergy is an integral part of renewable energy solutions to relieve the current energy crisis. Unlike liquid biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) generate electricity directly by degrading organic matter through electrochemical reactions. MFCs are capable of utilizing low-grade organic matter in wastewater streams. Despite the numerous theoretical advantages that MFCs have, they are not yet ready for “real-world” applications other than powering small sensor devices because of their low power output and high costs in construction and operation. New advances are needed in biofilm engineering, materials for electrodes and reactor configuration to achieve much better bioelectrochemical performance. This chapter reviews the bioelectrochemistry of electrogenic biofilms and the electrochemical mechanisms of MFCs. It explores various ways to improve MFC performance including state-of-the-art hypotheses on using engineered biofilms to revolutionize MFCs.

Hongyu Wang

Papers

Recent advances in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for wastewater treatment, bioenergy and bioproducts

Anode modification by electrochemical oxidation: a new practical method to improve the performance of microbial fuel cells.

Power generation enhancement in novel microbial carbon capture cells with immobilized Chlorella vulgaris

Graphite Felt Anode Modified by Electropolymerization of Nano-Polypyrrole to Improve Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Production ofBioelectricity

Bioelectrochemistry of Microbial Fuel Cells and their Potential Applications in Bioenergy