Microbial Fuel Cells, Concept, and Applications

Santoro, Carlo, Brown, Mike, Gajda, Iwona, Greenman, John, Obata, Oluwatosin, García, Maria José Salar, Theodosiou, Pavlina, Walter, Alexis, Winfield, Jonathan, You, Jiseon and Ieropoulos, Ioannis (2019) Microbial Fuel Cells, Concept, and Applications. In, Thouand, Gerald (ed.) Handbook of Cell Biosensors. Springer, pp. 1-35. (doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47405-2_93-1).

Abstract

The first published report of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) was over 100 years ago, yet it is only recently that interest in the technology has grown exponentially with the discovery that bacteria can transfer electrons to the anode without the need for external mediators. Diverse bioelectrochemical technologies have since been developed. Microbial fuel cells have captured the attention of scientists due to the simultaneous removal of organics and pollutants and generation of electricity. Therefore, the MFC technology can become an integrated part of wastewater treatment as a renewable power system for low power consuming devices or even for real-time biosensing. In this work, a brief story of microbial fuel cells is presented followed by the description of existing bioelectrochemical systems. The diverse range of organic compounds treated in MFCs is presented followed by the description of the main MFC components (anode, cathode, and separator) their development and optimisation. Finally, the implementation of the technology for wastewater treatment and practical implementations are discussed. A final detailed part is dedicated to the utilisation of bioelectrochemical systems for biosensing.

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Contributors

Author: Ioannis Ieropoulos

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