title: Microbial fuel cells and microbial electrolysis cells for the production of bioelectricity and biomaterials.
abstract: Today's global energy crisis requires a multifaceted solution. Bioenergy is an important part of the solution. The microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology stands out as an attractive potential technology in bioenergy. MFCs can convert energy stored in organic matter directly into bioelectricity. MFCs can also be operated in the electrolysis mode as microbial electrolysis cells to produce bioproducts such as hydrogen and ethanol. Various wastewaters containing low-grade organic carbons that are otherwise unutilized can be used as feed streams for MFCs. Despite major advances in the past decade, further improvements in MFC power output and cost reduction are needed for MFCs to be practical. This paper analysed MFC operating principles using bioenergetics and bioelectrochemistry. Several major issues were explored to improve the MFC performance. An emphasis was placed on the use of catalytic materials for MFC electrodes. Recent advances in the production of various biomaterials using MFCs were also investigated.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pollution Process and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China. zhoumh@nankai.edu.cn
authors.forename: Minghua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pollution Process and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pollution Process and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pollution Process and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Dake
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Tingyue
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D018441:Biofilms; D056804:Biofuels; D004566:Electrodes; D004572:Electrolysis; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000737:chemistry; D008697:Methane / Q000737:chemistry; D054813:Polyhydroxyalkanoates / Q000737:chemistry; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D000431:Ethanol; D006859:Hydrogen; D008697:Methane; D054813:Polyhydroxyalkanoates; D062065:Wastewater