AdVantages and disadvatages of

microbial fuel
NARULA INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY
CSE1B
Ch201
PRESENTED BY
- DIVAKAR KUMAR JHA (086)
- GAURAV KUMAR (087)
-ARGHA GHOSH (088)
-DEBMALYA MAJUMDAR (089)
-ROHAN SAHA (091)
Introduction:

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device that converts chemical

energy to electrical energy by the action of microorganisms.
These electrochemical cells are constructed using either a
bioanode and/or a biocathode. Most MFCs contain a

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 membrane to separate the compartments of the anode
(where oxidation takes place) and the cathode (where
reduction takes place). The electrons produced during
oxidation are transferred directly to an electrode or to
a redox mediator
species.

In MFC , the electrons undergo a reduction reaction.This is a

chemical process in which electrons are absorbed. As the
electrons move from anode to cathode, they create an electric
current. This can do work, such as power a light bulb.

Importance of Study:

Microbial fuel cells can harvest electricity from electrode-

reducing organisms that donate electrons to the anode. While

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the microorganism oxidizes organic compounds or substrates
into carbon dioxide, the electrons are transferred to the
anode.Using microbial fuel cells may help reduce
environmental contaminants such as wastewater ,reduce
atmospheric carbon dioxide by using it to rebuilds fuels, and
may potentially provide a renewable energy source Beside it ,
By using microbial fuel cell we can create electricity through the
use of microorganisms. Organisms that transfer electrons to the
anode are called electrode-reducing organisms.

Review:

Microbial Fuel Cells and more recently extended into various

Bio-electrochemical Systems are an interesting and
constantly expanding field of science and technology that
combines biological catalytic redox activity with classic
electrochemical reactions.The addition of biological
organisms responsible for catalyzing electrochemical
reactions, gives these systems a level of complexity that is
perhaps above that of already complex electrochemical
system. The main differences of MFCs with the conventional low
temperature fuel cells are:-
i.) The electrocatalyst is biotic (electroactive bacteria or proteins)
at the anode.
ii.) The temperature can range between 15 °C and 45 °C, with
close to ambient levels as optimum.
iii.) A promising moderate environmental impact assessed
through life cycle analysis.

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A further challenge is related with the low energy produced by MFCs,
which is currently orders of magnitude lower compared to that of
chemical fuel cells. The harvesting and management of the low power
generated by MFCs has given rise to new hybrid systems that partially
address this problem by coupling MFCs with external off-the-shelf
harvesting systems based mainly on supercapacitors, with a number of
applications reported. Recently, capacitive features of the electrodes
have been investigated and supercapacitive electrodes have also been

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used as internal supercapacitors and the properties of those materials
have been studied .
Finally, several organic compounds coming from different
municipal and industrial types of wastewater have been successfully
investigated showing the feasibility of BES in generating power and
simultaneously degrading pollutants, thus becoming an alternative
technology for cleaning water with zero or positive energy budget

References:

1. Logan B.E., Aelterman P., Hamelers B., Rozendal R., Schröeder U.,
Keller J., Freguia S., Verstraete W., Rabaey K. Environ. Sci. Technol.
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3. Borole A.P., Reguera G., Ringeisen B., Wang Z.-W., Feng Y., Hong
Kim B. Energy Environ. Sci. 2011;4:4813–4834.

4. Schroeder U., Harnisch F. Springer; New York: 2014. Biofilms,

Electroactive. Encyclopedia of Applied Electrochemistry; pp. 120–126.

5. Pandey P., Shinde V.N., Deopurkar R.L., Kale S.P., Patil S.A., Pant D.
Appl. Energy. 2016;168:706–723.

6. Pant D., Singh A., Van Bogaert G., Alvarez Gallego Y., Diels L.,
Vanbroekhoven K. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2011;15:1305–1313.

7. Karube I., Matasunga T., Suzuki S., Tsuru S. Biochim. Biophys. Acta.
1976;24:338–343.

8. Kadier A., Simayi Y., Abdeshahian Peyman, Farhana Azman N.,

Chandrasekhar K., Sahaid Kalil M. Alex. Eng. J. 2016;55:427–443.

9. Marshall C.W., Ross D.E., Fichot E.B., Norman R.S., May H.D.
Environ. Sci. Technol. 2013;47:6023–6029.

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10. Cao X., Huang X., Liang P., Xiao K., Zhou Y., Zhang X., Logan B.E.
Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009;43:7148–7152.

INNOVATIVE IDEA:

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been nominated as new alternatives

and novel opportunities which are able to convert biodegradable
organic matters (as substrates) into green electricity with the aim of
different types of active microorganisms as active biocatalysts. In
terms of configurations, one-chambered MFCs (OC-MFCs), dual-
chambered MFCs (DC-MFCs), tubular, H-type, up flow MFCs, and
stacked ones would be introduced each for specific objectives. Basically,
MFC configuration consists of a biological anode and an abiotic
cathode chamber separated by a proton exchange membrane. Direct
production of electricity out of substrates, enabling to be operated
efficiently at an ambient temperature, and expanding the diversity of
fuels used as energy requirements are some of the most praiseworthy
advantages of MFCs. Due to electron and proton release resulted by
oxidized substrates in anode compartment, sufficient information
about electron transfer mechanisms of microorganisms is essential to
reach raising amount of energy produced by an MFC system and to
find out the theory about their operation. In the 1980s, scientists have
figured out that adding some electron mediators causes an incredible
enhancement in power output and current density of mentioned
technology. By this demonstration, the mediator acts as a movable
agent which transports electrons between electrode and bacteria in
anode part. Moreover, the most useful applications of MFCs can be
classified into four significant categories. They have the ability to be
used for electricity production, generation of biological hydrogen, and
wastewater treatment (WWT) plants. Besides, MFCs was used as
power generator for sensors and biosensors or serve as biosensors
themselves. Hence, use of MFCs in water quality improvement which is
related to WWT has attracted many scientists all over the world over

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recent years. Consequently, by using these novel technologies, online
monitoring of various parameters related to water quality such as
biological oxygen demand, toxicity, and total organic carbon is
achievable.

Conclusion:

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a new bioelectrochemical process that

aims to produce electricity by using the electrons derived from
biochemical reactions catalyzed by bacteria. The energy generated by
MFCs is expected to supply enough energy to partially cover the
energy demand in urban WWTPs.2.In MFCs, the electrons released
by bacteria from the substrate oxidation in the anode compartment
(the negative terminal) are transferred to the cathode compartment
(the positive terminal) through a conductive material. In the cathode,
the electrons are combined with oxygen and the protons diffused
through a proton exchange membrane. MFCs require sustained
electron release in the anode and electron consumption in the
cathode.17 The attainable metabolic energy gain for bacteria is
directly related to the difference between the anode potential and the
substrate redox potential. The optimal design for MFC is still under
investigation, and different materials for the electrodes as well as
more selective membranes for proton exchange are being currently
developed to enhance their performance. It seems that small cells
connected in series offer higher potentials than bigger reactor
volumes. Nowadays, the main drawback for the full-scale application
of MFC is the cost of materials and the low buffering capacity of
domestic wastewater. For this reason, there is no industrial
application of MFC to date.However, the feasibility of domestic
wastewater treatment by MFCs has been successfully tested in
laboratory experiments, obtaining COD removal up to 50% and
power densities about 420–460 mW m−2.2 Recently, C and N
removal was obtained in an MFC fed with synthetic wastewater
containing and acetate. Here, SND was performed in the cathode
compartment separately from carbon oxidation.27 This configuration

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 optimized the C source and reduced the COD requirements.
Moreover, as denitrification uses the electrons obtained from the
separate oxidation of organic matter present in the wastewater, the
MFC system can operate very efficiently at low COD/N ratios. This
reduces the requirement for an external C-source supply. Thus, the
results reported in the literature prove that N removal with electricity
production in MFCs is possible and bring the horizon of self-sufficient
WWTPs closer

Summary:

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising technology for the

production of electricity from organic material and wastes. Currently
limited applications are possible because of low MFC power output. An
understanding of the microbiology of the current producing process is
required before further advances in power output are possible. Two
major problems that need to be addressed is proton accumulation
within the biofilm and over potential at the cathode. Of interest are
some current application of MFCs where current production is not the
major advantage, but wastewater treatment or bioremediation using a
cathode or anode maybe much more promising then the electrical
production of the MFC itself.

Accknodlegement:

We would like to express our special thanks of gratitude to our

teacher Mrs. Sarbani Ganguly, who gave us the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful team project work.

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THANK YOU

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