Recent Developments in Microbial Electrolysis Cell-Based Biohydrogen Production Utilizing Wastewater as a Feedstock

Pooja Dange, Soumya Pandit, Dipak Jadhav, Poojhaa Shanmugam, Piyush Kumar Gupta, Sanjay Kumar, Manu Kumar, Yung-Hun Yang and Shashi Kant Bhatia
Additional contact information
Pooja Dange: Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Mumbai 4102016, India
Soumya Pandit: Department of Life Sciences, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida 201306, India
Dipak Jadhav: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Aurangabad 431010, India
Poojhaa Shanmugam: Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Mumbai 4102016, India
Piyush Kumar Gupta: Department of Life Sciences, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida 201306, India
Sanjay Kumar: Department of Life Sciences, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida 201306, India
Manu Kumar: Department of Life Science, Dongguk University-Seoul, 32 Dongguk-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si 10326, Korea
Yung-Hun Yang: Institute for Ubiquitous Information Technology and Application, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea
Shashi Kant Bhatia: Institute for Ubiquitous Information Technology and Application, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-37

Abstract: Carbon constraints, as well as the growing hazard of greenhouse gas emissions, have accelerated research into all possible renewable energy and fuel sources. Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), a novel technology able to convert soluble organic matter into energy such as hydrogen gas, represent the most recent breakthrough. While research into energy recovery from wastewater using microbial electrolysis cells is fascinating and a carbon-neutral technology that is still mostly limited to lab-scale applications, much more work on improving the function of microbial electrolysis cells would be required to expand their use in many of these applications. The present limiting issues for effective scaling up of the manufacturing process include the high manufacturing costs of microbial electrolysis cells, their high internal resistance and methanogenesis, and membrane/cathode biofouling. This paper examines the evolution of microbial electrolysis cell technology in terms of hydrogen yield, operational aspects that impact total hydrogen output in optimization studies, and important information on the efficiency of the processes. Moreover, life-cycle assessment of MEC technology in comparison to other technologies has been discussed. According to the results, MEC is at technology readiness level (TRL) 5, which means that it is ready for industrial development, and, according to the techno-economics, it may be commercialized soon due to its carbon-neutral qualities.

Keywords: microbial electrolysis cells; chronological development; wastewater to hydrogen; scale-up; life-cycle assessment; MEC commercialization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/8796/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/8796/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:16:p:8796-:d:609576

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().