Yue Du, Fei‐Xiang Ma, Cheng‐Yan Xu et al.

Nano Energy • 2019

Safwat M. Safwat, Ehab Rozaik, Hisham Abdel‐Halim

Polish Journal of Environmental Studies • 2016

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) can use wastewater as a substrate; hence, it is essential to understand its performance when seeded with different inocula and during the treatment of carbohydrate-rich wastewaters to simultaneously optimize electricity production and wastewater treatment. This study investigates the performance of single-chamber membraneless MFCs used to treat three different carbohydrate-rich synthetic wastewaters (glucose, sucrose, and soluble starch) while seeding with two different inocula (a microbial solution containing different species of microorganisms, and anaerobic sludge). The results showed that the highest voltages, power densities, and COD removal effi ciencies were obtained using microbial fuel cells fed with glucose-based synthetic wastewater, and were 351 mV, 218 mW/m 2 , and 98.8%, respectively, for the microbial solution, and 508 mV, 456.8 mW/m 2 , and 94.3%, respectively, for the anaerobic sludge. The lowest results of voltages, power densities, and COD removal effi ciencies were obtained using microbial fuel cells fed with the soluble starch-based synthetic wastewater, and were 281 mV, 139.8 mW/m 2 , and 86.4%, respectively, for the microbial solution, and 396 mV, 277.6 mW/m 2 , and 79.4%, respectively, for the anaerobic sludge. In all experiments, the voltages and power densities obtained for the anaerobic sludge were higher than those obtained for the microbial solution, and the COD removal effi ciencies obtained for the anaerobic sludge were less than those obtained for the microbial solution. This study determined that voltage generation, power densities, and COD removal effi ciencies were inversely proportional to the complexity of the carbohydrate used in single-chamber microbial fuel cells.

Li Fu, Jiaqi Wang, Xiuwei Fu et al.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy • 2024

Chunfeng Shao, Lingmin Wu, Haocheng Zhang et al.

Advanced Functional Materials • 2021

Abstract Although atomically dispersed Fe‐N 4 on carbon materials (Fe‐NC) have enormous potential for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), precise control over the electronic structure of Fe to enhance the catalytic performance and a full understanding of the catalytic mechanism remain elusive. Herein, a novel approach is designed to boost the kinetic activity of single Fe‐N 4 centers by controlling S‐doped content and species (namely, thiophene‐like S and oxidized S). Due to confinement and catalysis effects, the innovative strategy of combining a Mg(OH) 2 template with KOH activation preferentially generates oxidized S and simultaneously constructs porous carbon with a high Fe loading (2.93 wt%) and hierarchical pores. Theoretical calculations suggest that neighboring S functionalities can affect the electronic configurations of Fe‐N 4 sites and increase the electron density around Fe atoms, thereby optimizing the adsorption energy of intermediates and substantially accelerating reaction kinetics, following the trend: oxidized S doped > thiophene‐like S doped > pristine Fe‐N 4 . Benefiting from high activity and accessibility of Fe‐N 4 sites, the optimal FeNC‐SN‐2 electrode displays impressive ORR activity with large power density while maintaining outstanding durability in Zn‐air batteries and microbial fuel cells. The work paves the way to prepare stable single‐atom metal‐N x sites with heteroatom‐doping for diverse high‐performance applications.

S. Jayashree, S. T. Ramesh, Addagada Lavanya et al.

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy • 2019

Ravindra Singh Pandya, Tanveen Kaur, Riya Bhattacharya et al.

Water-Energy Nexus • 2023

In response to escalating global energy demands and mounting environmental concerns, Microbial Fuel Cells have emerged as a groundbreaking technology, leveraging the unique abilities of microorganisms to harness bioenergy. This comprehensive review delves into the foundational principles governing MFCs, exploring mechanisms facilitating electron transfer and bioenergy generation while addressing factors influencing MFC performance. It further analyzes MFCs' multifaceted applications, from wastewater treatment to bioenergy recovery, and investigates their synergistic integration with other renewable energy systems. Despite these promising prospects, this review acknowledges the challenges of scalability, cost-effectiveness, and optimization, highlighting recent advancements aimed at enhancing efficiency, stability, and economic viability in MFC research. This review further offers a holistic perspective on the dynamic field of MFCs, assessing their potential to revolutionize bioenergy production while recognizing the hurdles to widespread adoption.

Mostafa E. Elshobary, Hossain M. Zabed, Junhua Yun et al.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy • 2020

Fabrice Ndayisenga, Zhisheng Yu, Jianzhong Zheng et al.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews • 2021

Xiaolu Tang, Lu Wang, Qingyun Zhang et al.

Environmental Science and Pollution Research • 2024

Meng Li, Shaoqi Zhou, Mingyi Xu

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2017

Marcelinus Christwardana, Bryant Andhika Prayoga, Satrio Kuntolaksono et al.

Bioresource Technology Reports • 2025

Bolong Liang, Kexun Li, Yi Liu et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2018

Awet Arefe Tesfahunegn, Xinshan Song, Yuhui Wang et al.

Process Safety and Environmental Protection • 2023

Pewee Datoo Kolubah, Hend Omar Mohamed, Maya Ayach et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2023

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have enormous potential to treat wastewater and reduce the energy demands of wastewater treatment plants while generating electricity using active microorganisms as biocatalysts. However, the practical application of MFCs is limited by the low power density produced, mainly due to poor anode performance. A tungsten nitride (W2N)-MXene composite catalyst is introduced to modify the anode surface for use in microbial fuel cells during domestic wastewater treatment. The aim is to improve the wettability, electrical conductivity, electron transfer efficiency, and microorganism attachment capability of the anode and ultimately increase the overall performance of the microbial fuel cell to produce electricity during wastewater treatment. In detail, a hydrofluoric acid etching approach is used to synthesize the Ti3C2Tx MXene, the urea glass technique is used to prepare the W2N particles, and an adequate mixing and heat treatment approach is used to produce the W2N-Ti3C2Tx composite catalyst. The W2N-Ti3C2Tx composite on carbon cloth anode provides one of the best performances recorded for MXene in this type of fuel cells and using real domestic wastewater: with a 523 % increase in the power density (548 mW m−2), an 83 % decrease in the chemical oxygen demand (COD), and a 161 % increase in the electron transfer efficiency compared to those of the plain carbon cloth. We demonstrate that this outstanding performance is due to the improvements in hydrophilicity and microorganism attachment, particularly nanowires (or pili) which promote electron transfer. The present work offers an exciting avenue toward the process scale-up and optimization of single-chamber microbial fuel cells.

Junhong Wang, Xu Pan, Ye Chen et al.

Renewable Energy • 2025

Shuiliang Chen, Sunil A. Patil, Robert K. Brown et al.

Applied Energy • 2018

Yixuan Wang, Chuan-Shu He, Wenqiang Li et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2020

Hegazy Rezk, Mostafa Ghasemi

Neural Computing and Applications • 2025

Xinxin Fan, Zhen Zhang, Wen Zhou et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2025

Minghao Yu, Xinyu Cheng, Yinxiang Zeng et al.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition • 2016

A novel in situ N and low-valence-state Mo dual doping strategy was employed to significantly improve the conductivity, active-site accessibility, and electrochemical stability of MoO3 , drastically boosting its electrochemical properties. Consequently, our optimized N-MoO3-x nanowires exhibited exceptional performances as a bifunctional anode material for both fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) and microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The flexible fiber-shaped ASC and MFC device based on the N-MoO3-x anode could deliver an unprecedentedly high energy density of 2.29 mWh cm(-3) and a remarkable power density of 0.76 μW cm(-1) , respectively. Such a bifunctional fiber-shaped N-MoO3-x electrode opens the way to integrate the electricity generation and storage for self-powered sources.

Yifan He, Wenchao Xue, Kang Xiao et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production • 2022

O. D. Akinwumi, Ebenezer Olujimi Dada, S. E. Agarry et al.

Environmental Processes • 2024

Kyuhwan Hyun, Seong-Jun Kim, Yongchai Kwon

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering • 2021

Amrita Shahi, Padmanaban Velayudhaperumal Chellam, Ankur Verma et al.

Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments • 2021

A. Divya Priya, Y. Pydi Setty

Energy Sources Part A Recovery Utilization and Environmental Effects • 2018

Oxygen reduction reaction plays an important role in improving the performance of microbial fuel cell (MFC). MnO2:rGO with different ratios (100:0), (85:15), (75:25), and (60:40) were used as cathode electro-catalyst, and performance analysis was done to find the optimum ratio. The isolated bacteria with new strain, Bacillus subtilis subspecies spizizenii strain No NBRC 101239 (ACCESSION no NR_112686) was used for the first time as a biocatalyst. MnO2 and MnO2:rGO were synthesized by reflux method and were characterized by X-ray diffractometer, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and laser Raman spectroscopy. It was found that the MFC with ratio (75:25) showed higher performance with maximum power density 32.5 mW/m2 compared to 6.76 mW/m2 (85:15), 3.79 mW/m2 (100:0), and 3 mW/m2 (60:40).

Jiabi Han, Jinhui Zhao, Yangyang Wang et al.

Environmental Science and Pollution Research • 2023

Moogambigai Sugumar, Vaidhegi Kugarajah, Sangeetha Dharmalingam

Process Safety and Environmental Protection • 2021

Brahmaiah Pendyala, Subba Rao Chaganti, Jerald A. Lalman et al.

Waste Management • 2016

Yudong Zhang, Wei Yang, Qian Fu et al.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy • 2018

Hui Jia, Wenbin Liu, Jie Wang et al.

Chemosphere • 2018

Mpumelelo T. Matsena, Mziwenene Mabuse, Shepherd M. Tichapondwa et al.

Chemosphere • 2021

Eduardo Dellosso Penteado, Carmen M. Fernández‐Marchante, Marcelo Zaiat et al.

Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering • 2018

This paper focus on the determination of the influence of the electrode-surface area / anode-compartment volume ratio (ESAVR) on the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFC), both in terms of the generation of electricity and the removal of organic matter from waste. Real wastewater coming from a winery factory was used and five ESAVRs were tested in separate MFCs, ranging from 0.15 to 0.75cm2cm-3. Results demonstrate that the electricity generation increases by decreasing the anode-compartment volume. Thus, by increasing ESAVR, maximum current density increased from 583 to 2416 mA m-2. However, the COD removal was found to be more efficient upon decreasing the ESAVR (from 590 to 1075 mg COD L-1 d-1). Results are of extreme significance for the mechanical design of MFC in order to optimize their performance during normal operation.

Nilesh Patil, Rajveer Bhaskar, VISHAL VYAVHARE et al.

International Journal of Current Pharmaceutical Research • 2021

In recent years, interest in the development of novel drug delivery systems using nanoparticles has gained more attention. The nanoparticles offer several advantages over other conventional drug delivery systems. Nanoparticles have gained importance in technological advancements due to their modifiable physical, chemical and biological properties with improved performance over their bulk foils. Nanoparticles can simply move in the body due to their small size and reach very complex organs through diverse routes. The high stability, controlled drug release makes nanoparticles the most suitable drug delivery system. Along with all these advantages, they offer variety in routes of administration. Both hydrophilic, as well as hydrophobic drugs, can be delivered in the form of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles have been used as a physical approach to modify and advance the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics possessions of various types of drug molecules. Thesol-gel technique is a stress-free and very inexpensive process to formulate metal oxides and permits control over the doping process or adding of transition metals, as related to other research techniques. The study of different methods of synthesis of nanoparticles is essential to obtain desired nanoparticles with specific sizes and shapes. They are suitable candidates for various marketable and local applications, which include imaging, catalysis medical applications and environmental applications. This review mainly focuses on approaches used for the production of nanoparticles and different methods of synthesis of nanoparticles such as physical, chemical and biological method.

Mohammad Danish Khan, Mohammad Danish Khan, Da Li et al.

The Science of The Total Environment • 2020

In this study, an azo dye (Acid Blue 29 or AB29) was efficiently degraded with acetate as co-substrate into less contaminated biodegraded products using an integrated single chamber microbial fuel cell (SMFC)-aerobic bioreactor set-up. The decolorization efficiencies were varied from 91 ± 2% to 94 ± 1.9% and more than 85% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was achieved for all dye concentrations after different operating time. The highest coulombic efficiency (CE) and cell potential were 3.18 ± 0.45% and 287.2 mV, respectively, for SMFC treating 100 mg L -1 of AB29. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) revealed that the anode resistance was 0.3 Ω representing an entirely grown biofilm on the anode surface resulted in higher electron transfer rate. Gas chromatography coupled mass spectrometry (GC-MS) investigation demonstrated that initially biodegradation of AB29 started with the cleavage of the azo bond (-N=N-), resulted the biotransformation into aromatic amines. In successive aerobic treatment stage, these amines were biodegraded into lower molecular weight compounds. The 16S rRNA microbial community analysis indicated that at phylum level, both inoculum and dye acclimated cultures were mainly consisting of Proteobacteria which was 27.9, 53.6 and 68.9% in inoculum, suspension and anodic biofilm, respectively. At genus level, both suspension and biofilm contained decolorization as well as electrochemically active bacteria. The outcomes exhibited that the AB29 decolorization would contest with electrogenic bacteria for electrons.

Eileen Hao Yu

Fuel Cells • 2016

This is the Guest Editorial to the First Virtual Issue of Fuel Cells – From Fundamentals to Systems on Microbial and Enzymatic Fuel Cells. Browse here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1615-6854/homepage/2293_vi_bio_fuelcells.html to access all articles compiled in the Virtual Issue. Increased economic growth and development are leading to a large gap between energy demands and the availability of fossil fuels. The concerns for the environment and climate change urge the innovation for new technologies for waste treatment and resource recovery. The development of bioelectrochemical systems (BES) represents a new approach for harvesting electricity from waste and biomass 1. The development of biological fuel cells using biocatalysts, i.e., electrogenic microorganisms and purified enzymes, has attracted numerous interests resulted in large quantity of research projects and publications in the area in the past decade. Enzymatic fuel cells using purified redox enzymes as the catalysts are attractive for biomedical applications 2. Electrogenic reactors based on microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent a new approach for harvesting electricity from waste and biomass 1. Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) mainly include microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology combines the developments in the biotechnology and fuel cell technology. The major difference between MFC and other types of fuel cells is the catalyst used. Instead of expensive noble metal or other chemical catalysts, microorganisms, such as bacteria and yeasts, are used. About a century ago in 1911, M. C. Potter first discovered the concept of electricity production from bacteria decomposing organic compounds by generating electricity with E. coli 3. Figure 1 compares the two biological fuel cell systems: enzymatic fuel cells and microbial fuel cells. As biocatalysts, enzymes catalyze specific reactions, while living microorganisms in MFCs are more roburst. Schematic diagrams of enzymatic and microbial fuel cells. As a potential power source for implantable medical devices, enzymatic fuel cells posses particular advantages over other types of fuel cells, due to high specificity of catalytic activity of enzymes. It is possible to design and manufacture simple structured and membraneless reactors using nontoxic and highly biocompatible materials. A review by Willner et al., summarized methods used to enhance electrical communication between the enzymes and the electrodes: (i)reconstitution of apoenzymes on relay-cofactor monolayers; immobilization of enzymes in redox-active hydrogels; the use of nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNT) 2. A glucose/oxygen enzymatic fuel cell operated in physiological buffer and conditions (pH 7.4, 37 °C and 0.15 M NaCl in phosphate buffer) using two different Osmium redox polymers as mediators with redox potential tailored for glucose oxidase (anode) and laccase (cathode). High outputs of 52 μW cm−2 at 0.21 V and 17 μW cm−2 at 0.34 V were obtained. However, in the long term, due to the toxicity of Os and danger of leaching out, it might be better to use something non-toxic and robust 4. Also, it is possible to use various physiological fluids as fuels, such as sweat or saliva, which makes it possible to have a versatile non-invasive system. Apart from glucose oxidase, which is most studied enzyme for enzymatic fuel cells, other types enzymes, have also been studied. Cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) was studied by Shleev's group as the anode biocatalyst for carbonhydrate/oxygen enzymaticl fuel cells. Bilirubin oxidase was used for the cathode oxygen reduction catalyst. Open circuit voltages in the range of 0.62–0.67 V were obtained in phosphate buffer solutions with glucose or lactose 5, and (OCVs) were slightly lower as 0.56–0.58 V in physiological fluids of sweat, saliva 6 and serum 7. Direct electron transfer (DET) between CDH was achieved by modifying Au nanopa

Manidipa Roy, Soumyajit Chandra, Tripti Singh et al.

Energy Sustainable Development/Energy for sustainable development • 2026

Tahina Onina Ranaivoarisoa, Rajesh Singh, Karthikeyan Rengasamy et al.

Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology • 2019

Bacterial synthesis of polyhydroxybutyrates (PHBs) is a potential approach for producing biodegradable plastics. This study assessed the ability of Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1 to produce PHBs under various conditions. We focused on photoautotrophy using a poised electrode (photoelectroautotrophy) or ferrous iron (photoferroautotrophy) as electron donors. Growth conditions were tested with either ammonium chloride or dinitrogen gas as the nitrogen source. Although TIE-1's capacity to produce PHBs varied fairly under different conditions, photoelectroautotrophy and photoferroautotrophy showed the highest PHB electron yield and the highest specific PHB productivity, respectively. Gene expression analysis showed that there was no differential expression in PHB biosynthesis genes. This suggests that the variations in PHB accumulation might be post-transcriptionally regulated. This is the first study to systematically quantify the amount of PHB produced by a microbe via photoelectroautotrophy and photoferroautotrophy. This work could lead to sustainable bioproduction using abundant resources such as light, electricity, iron, and carbon dioxide.

Giovanni V. Sayoga, Victoria S. Bueschler, Hubert Beisch et al.

Electrochemistry Communications • 2025

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a strong oxidizing agent that is commonly employed in chemical synthesis. Nevertheless, its utilization as a cosubstrate in biocatalytic reactions remains limited due to the deactivating effect on biocatalysts at an elevated concentration. An electrochemical synthesis of H₂O₂ represents an attractive approach, offering a controllable in situ generation of H₂O₂ without producing complex by-products. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of the in situ electrogeneration of H₂O₂ using the All-in-One (AiO) electrode within a flow reactor technology. Integrating a bioelectrochemical system (BES) into a flow reactor technology, such as a flow cell, presents an alternative strategy for scale-up. In this study, the in situ generation of H₂O₂ is coupled with the hydroxylation of 4-ethylbenzoic acid catalyzed by the immobilized recombinant unspecific peroxygenase from Agrocybe aegerita (r Aae UPO) within a complete BES under batch and fed-batch operation modes. The electrochemical flow cell facilitates a controllable H₂O₂ generation by adjusting experimental parameters such as current density, aeration rate and residence time. The flow cell BES equipped with the AiO electrode yielded a catalytic productivity as high as 1.24 ± 0.02 mM h −1 (4.95 ± 0.1 g L − 1 d −1 ), a total turnover number of r Aae UPO up to 3.38 · 10 5 ± 702 mol mol −1 and a turnover frequency up to 8.34 ± 0.14 s −1 . • Application of a flow cell in bioelectrochemical system (BES). • In situ supply of H₂O₂ via the All-in-One electrode in a flow cell. • H 2 O 2 productivity reached 1.3 μM min −1 cm −2 and a Faradaic efficiency of up to 42 %. • BES yielded a TTN and TOF up to 338,000 mol mol −1 and 8.34 s −1 . • Biocatalytic productivity as high as 4.95 g/L d −1 was achieved.

Ravinder Kumar, Pradeep Kumar

Frontiers in Microbiology • 2017

The fast receding concentration of fossil fuels and the mounting global demand of energy has necessitated the production of alternate fuels to replace the conventional fossil fuels so as to counter the increased deposition of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, which has led to considerable climatic changes. These changes could result in catastrophic repercussions in the near future, including rising temperature and sea levels. Evidently, the utilization of fossil fuels for electricity and heat production and for transportation accounts for 25% and 14% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, respectively (IPCC, 2014). Therefore, nowadays, the production of economically feasible and eco-friendly renewable energy fuels is the world's highest demand that indicates the potential to simultaneously replace the conventional fuels and reduce the environmental concern. The use of versatile microorganisms to generate renewable energy fuels from the biomass and biological wastes can diminish this menacing concern to a large extent. The interest in the production of various biofuels using microorganisms has been steadily increasing in the recent years (Table 1) (Liao et al., 2016), particularly because of the metabolic diversity of different microorganisms that enables the production of biofuels from various substrates. For example, most of the bacteria can easily convert sugars into ethanol, and cellulolytic microbes can utilize plant-driven substrates. Cyanobacteria and microalgae possess the potential to photosynthetically reduce the atmospheric CO2 into biofuels, and methanotrophs can use methane to produce methanol (Liao et al., 2016). In addition, some of the bacteria such as Geobacter sulfurreducens and Shewanella oneidensis exhibit specific “molecular machinery” that helps transfer electrons from microbial outer-membrane to conductive surfaces (Kracke et al., 2015), subsequently, this feature can be deployed in bioelectrochemical devices for biohydrogen and bioelectricity generation. The impending need to address the challenges involved in enabling these microorganisms to become a more feasible option for replacing the conventional fossil fuels has been discussed in this paper with possible future directions.

Stephen Andersen, Vicky De Groof, Way Cern Khor et al.

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology • 2017

A microbial community is engaged in a complex economy of cooperation and competition for carbon and energy. In engineered systems such as anaerobic digestion and fermentation, these relationships are exploited for conversion of a broad range of substrates into products, such as biogas, ethanol, and carboxylic acids. Medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs), for example, hexanoic acid, are valuable, energy dense microbial fermentation products, however, MCFA tend to exhibit microbial toxicity to a broad range of microorganisms at low concentrations. Here, we operated continuous mixed population MCFA fermentations on biorefinery thin stillage to investigate the community response associated with the production and toxicity of MCFA. In this study, an uncultured species from the Clostridium group IV (related to Clostridium sp. BS-1) became enriched in two independent reactors that produced hexanoic acid (up to 8.1 g L -1 ), octanoic acid (up to 3.2 g L -1 ), and trace concentrations of decanoic acid. Decanoic acid is reported here for the first time as a possible product of a Clostridium group IV species. Other significant species in the community, Lactobacillus spp. and Acetobacterium sp., generate intermediates in MCFA production, and their collapse in relative abundance resulted in an overall production decrease. A strong correlation was present between the community composition and both the hexanoic acid concentration ( p = 0.026) and total volatile fatty acid concentration ( p = 0.003). MCFA suppressed species related to Clostridium sp. CPB-6 and Lactobacillus spp. to a greater extent than others. The proportion of the species related to Clostridium sp. BS-1 over Clostridium sp. CPB-6 had a strong correlation with the concentration of octanoic acid ( p = 0.003). The dominance of this species and the increase in MCFA resulted in an overall toxic effect on the mixed community, most significantly on the Lactobacillus spp., which resulted in a decrease in total hexanoic acid concentration to 32 ± 2% below the steady-state average. As opposed to the current view of MCFA toxicity broadly leading to production collapse, this study demonstrates that varied tolerance to MCFA within the community can lead to the dominance of some species and the suppression of others, which can result in a decreased productivity of the fermentation.