Bio-Cathode Microbial Fuel Cells

Recently, a new type of MFCs called bio-cathode MFCs rapidly emerges as an attractive research topic. This type of MFCs employs bacteria as the cathodic catalysts to catalyse the reduction of oxygen (aerobic microbes) or other compounds with a high redox potential, such as nitrate and sulphate (anaerobic microbes). Bio-cathode MFCs are generally constructed in a dual-chamber form, with the anode biofilm separated from oxygen or other oxidants by a membrane, thus to ensure a high-power generation and 

Coulombic efficiency. The major advantages of these systems are their relatively low cost, good stability and multiple functions for wastewater treatment and biosynthesis. Bio-cathode MFCs show great promise for large-scale applications due to their low-cost and poisoning-resistant nature, but so far, these systems have required the use of DO rather than air, and the fuel cell architecture has not been optimised. 

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