Electro-Microbiology as a Promising Approach Towards Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability

Jafar Ali, Aaqib Sohail, Lei Wang, Muhammad Rizwan Haider, Shahi Mulk and Gang Pan
Additional contact information
Jafar Ali: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Aaqib Sohail: Research Group Biomarkers for Infectious Diseases, TWINCORE Centre for Clinical and Experimental Infection Research, 30625 Hannover, Germany
Lei Wang: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Muhammad Rizwan Haider: Research Center for Environmental Material and Pollution Control Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Shahi Mulk: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Gang Pan: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-30

Abstract: Microbial electrochemical technologies provide sustainable wastewater treatment and energy production. Despite significant improvements in the power output of microbial fuel cells (MFCs), this technology is still far from practical applications. Extracting electrical energy and harvesting valuable products by electroactive bacteria (EAB) in bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) has emerged as an innovative approach to address energy and environmental challenges. Thus, maximizing power output and resource recovery is highly desirable for sustainable systems. Insights into the electrode-microbe interactions may help to optimize the performance of BESs for envisioned applications, and further validation by bioelectrochemical techniques is a prerequisite to completely understand the electro-microbiology. This review summarizes various extracellular electron transfer mechanisms involved in BESs. The significant role of characterization techniques in the advancement of the electro-microbiology field is discussed. Finally, diverse applications of BESs, such as resource recovery, and contributions to the pursuit of a more sustainable society are also highlighted.

Keywords: renewable bioenergy; microbial fuel cell; bioelectrochemical system; resources recovery; biodegradation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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