Performance Evaliuation of Microbial Fuel Cell in Treating Industrial Effuelent and Energy Production

The increasing demands of efficient and sustainable energy generation methods from waste products have taken a giant leap in the last century, and especially in the previous two decades. Wastewater treatment has also been a much-researched topic in recent years owing to the exponential increase in effluent-laden wastewater from industries, the agricultural sector and food sector, and its effects on the environment. There have been plenty of wastewater treatment techniques over the years, but most of them lack in terms of cost- effectiveness, durability, and energy recovery rates. Microbial fuel cells can prove to be of great use to tackle both of these issues. As they perform bio electro chemical processes on organic biodegradable compounds to oxidize them to generate power which can be harnessed by various means. This article explains the aim, construction, mechanism, and application of microbial fuel cells; the economic and scientific challenges that they face in the future; and microbial fuel cell (MFC) hybrid systems which make use of MFCs combined with other useful technologies for greater aims and better efficiencies. The maximum BOD5 removal efficiency achieved was 55% with an current production of 0.36 to 3.71mA, voltage generation varied from 0.22 to 2.97V.