Microbial Fuel Cells Producing Electricity from Wastewaters

1 Microbial Fuel Cells Producing Electricity from Wastewaters 

The most important application of MFCs is to recover electricity from aqueous organic matter (either S5mthetic or natural wastewaters). A large variety of fuel cell configurations, electrode materials, catholytes and operating modes were developed for a high electricity production and biomass removal. In this section, we will introduce some typical MFCs primarily based on the catholytes used and the operational modes. 

---

A microbial fuel cell consists of an anode, a cathode, a proton or cation exchange membrane, and an electrical circuit. The bacteria live in the anode and convert a substrate such as glucose, acetate, as well as wastewater into CO2, protons, and electrons as shown in Figure 1.9. Under aerobic conditions, bacteria use oxygen or nitrate as a final electron acceptor to produce water. However, in the anode of an MFC, no oxygen is present and bacteria need to switch from their natural electron acceptor to an insoluble acceptor, such as the MFC anode. Because of the ability of bacteria to transfer electrons to an insoluble electron acceptor, we can use an MFC to collect the electrons originating from the microbial metabolism. The electron transfer can occur... 

---