Wastewater microbial fuel cells

Karra, U. et al.. Power generation and organics removal from wastewater using activated carbon nanofiber (ACNF) microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Int. J. Hydrogen Ener. 2012. 

Alzate-Gaviria, L. (2011). Microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment. In F. S. G. Einschlag (Ed.), Waste water Treatment and utilisation (pp. 152-170). In Tech. Available from http //cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/14554.pdf. Accessed February 2014. 

Feng, Y., Wang, X., Logan, B. E., Lee, H. (2008). Brewery wastewater treatment using air-cathode microbial fuel cells. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 78, 873-880. 

Mathuriya, A. S., Sharma, V. N. (2010). Treatment of brewery wastewater and production of electricity through microbial fuel cell technology. International Journal of Biochemistry... 

Min B and Logan B E (2004), Continuous electricity generation from domestic wastewater and organic snbstrates in a flat plate microbial fuel cell , Environ Sci Technol, 38,5809-5814. 

Oh, S. E., Logan, B. E. (2005). Hydrogen and electricity production from a food processing wastewater using fermentation and microbial fuel cell technologies. Water Research, 39, 4673-4682. 

Fornero, J.J., Rosenbaum, M., and Angenent, LT. (2010) Electric power generation from municipal, food, and animal wastewaters using microbial fuel cells. Electroanalysis, 22 (7-8), 832-843. 

Microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment. Water Sci. Technol, 54 (8), 9-15. 

Ahn, Y. and Logan, B.E. (2010) Effectiveness of domestic wastewater treatment using microbial fuel cells at ambient and mesophilic temperatures. Bioresour. Technol, 101 (2), 469-475. 

Curtis, T.P., and Scott, K. (2011) Factors affecting current production in microbial fuel cells using different industrial wastewaters. Bioresour. 

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He Z, Minteer SD, Angenent LT. Electricity generation from artificial wastewater using an upflow microbial fuel cell. Environ Sci Technol 2005 39(14) 5262-5267. 

Brewery and food manufacturing wastewater can be treated by microbial fuel cells because this wastewater is rich in organic compounds that can serve as respiratory substrates for the micro-organisms. Breweries are ideal for microbial fuel cells, as their wastewater composition is always the same these constant conditions allow bacteria to adapt and become mote efficient. 

Sewage wastewater (Figure 19.D) can also be converted via microbial fuel cells to decompose the waste organic material present. Research has shown that MFCs can reduce the amount of organic material present in sewage wastewater by up to 80%. The process is very similar to brewery wastewater treatment, the difference being that the water must first be pre-treated to remove toxins. This is important because sewage wastewater often varies in composition and may require extensive treatment before it can be cleaned by the MFC. However, this extensive treatment is justified by the electricity produced... 

Makarand M. Ghangrekar (wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cell and electricity generation). Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kgp), Kharagpur, West Bengal... 

Electrode materials play an important role in the performance (power output) and cost of bacterial fuel cells. This problem was the topic of two review papers. In a review by Rismani-Yazdi et al. (2008), some aspects of cathodic limitations (ohmic and mass transport losses, substrate crossover, etc.), are discussed. In a review by Zhou et al. (2011), recent progress in anode and cathode and filling materials as three-dimensional electrodes for microbial fuel cells (MFCs) has been reviewed systematically, resulting in comprehensive insights into the characteristics, options, modifications, and evaluations of the electrode materials and their effects on various actual wastewater treatments. Some existing problems of electrode materials in current MFCs are summarized, and the outlook for future development is also suggested. 

Kargi, F. Eker, S. Electricity generation with simultaneous wastewater treatment by a microbial fuel-cell (MFC) with Cu and Cu-Au electrodes. J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 82 2001), pp. 658-662. 

Liu, H., Ramnarayanan, R. Logan, B.E. Production of electricity during wastewater treatment using a single chamber microbial fuel-cell. Environ. Sci. Technol. 38 (2004), pp. 2281—2285. 

Sun, J., Hu, Y., Bi, Z. Cao, Y Improved performance of air-cathode single-chamber microbial fuel-cell for wastewater treatment using microfiltration membranes and multiple sludge inoculation. J. Power Sources 187 (2009a), pp. 41 -419. 

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... 

Two other specific areas must be mentioned in this introduction the emerging fields of microbial fuel cells and microfluidic fuel cells. In some ways these two new fields can be considered embodiments of low-temperature fuel cells operating at the extreme size scales - microbial fuel cells have their genesis in the exploration of wastewater treatment in electrochemical and bioelectrochemical systems. These proposed applications are by their nature enormous in size, with reactor volumes measured in the tens of cubic meters (many orders of magnitude larger than the conventional low-temperature fuel cells). 

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device that uses microbes to convert chemical energy stored in organic or inorganic matter into electrical energy. For nearly a century it has been known that bacteria can generate electrical current [1]. However, it is only within the last decade that MFCs have drawn much research attention for their potential applications in energy generation from wastewater... 

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