18. Microbial Fuel Cells for Wastewater Treatment

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which are the bioelectrochemical systems, have been developed rapidly over the past few decades and are considered as a promising technique to obtain renewable resources from wastewater. MFCs can be used to harness electricity from microorganisms during wastewater treatment. This chapter reviews recent literature on MFCs for wastewater treatment. We first introduce the concept of MFCs and summarize the materials and design of MFCs afterward. It shows that through innovative materials and design, the current density of MFCs has been greatly improved during the last decade. Microorganisms play a major role in the electricity production of MFCs and therefore, an in-depth discussion of the microbiology of MFCs was also included in this chapter. Extensive studies on exoelectrogenic bacteria and consortia are beginning to expose the mechanistic and ecological complexities of MFC biofilm communities. Yet, our understanding of electrochemically active microbes is still in its infancy, as the diverse communities have a multitude of undiscovered populations in different MFC applications. Further study is warranted to optimize design, materials, and microbiology to improve electricity recovery from MFCs.