Microbial fuel cells: Devices for real wastewater treatment, rather than electricity production

For last two decades, various microbial fuel cells have been studied to treat real wastewater and simultaneously produce electricity. The performance of 106 MFCs using real wastewater were summarized and grouped according to reactor design (size, shape, and whether single chamber), installation type, operating mode, and wastewater type. Most studies operated MFCs with mini size (<1 L) (57%), box shape (50%), single-chamber (60%), chamber-type (94%), operated under continuous flow mode (67%) with non-domestic wastewater (66%). Their maximum power production and net energy recovery were as low as ~165 W/m3 and ~1.1 kWh/kgCOD, respectively. However, most MFC studies (75/106) using real wastewater achieved higher than 60% of COD removal efficiencies. In addition, recent MFC studies reported successful treatment of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and antibiotics as well as organics. The review on MFCs using real wastewater suggests that MFC is more proper to apply for wastewater treatment rather than energy production.