An Overview of Current Trends in Emergence of Nanomaterials for Sustainable Microbial Fuel Cells

Kuppurangam, Gunaseelan; Selvaraj, Gajalakshmi; Ramasamy, Thirumurugan; Venkatasamy, Vignesh; Kamaraj, Sathish-Kumar

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04474-9_8

An Overview of Current Trends in Emergence of Nanomaterials for Sustainable Microbial Fuel Cells

Gunaseelan Kuppurangam⁸,
Gajalakshmi Selvaraj⁸,
Thirumurugan Ramasamy⁹,
Vignesh Venkatasamy¹⁰ &
…
Sathish-Kumar Kamaraj¹¹

Chapter
First Online: 08 February 2019

1076 Accesses
4 Citations

Part of the book series: Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World ((ECSW,volume 23))

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technologies have been globally noticed as one of the most promising sources for alternative renewable energy, due to its capability of transforming the organics in the wastewater directly into electricity through catalytic reactions of microorganisms under anaerobic conditions. In this chapter, the state of the art of review on the various emerging technological aspects of nanotechnology for the development of nanomaterials to make the existing microbial fuel cell technology as more sustainable and reliable in order to serve the growing energy demand. Initially, a brief history of the development and the current trends of the microbial fuel cells along with its basic working mechanism, basic designs, components, fascinating derivative forms, performance evaluation, challenges and synergetic applications have been presented. Then the focus is shifted to the importance of incorporation of the nanomaterials for the sustainable development of MFC technology by means of advancements through anode, cathode, and proton exchange membranes modifications along with the various ultimate doping methods. The possibilities of applied nanomaterials and its derivatives in various places in MFCs are discussed. The nanomaterials in MFCs have a significant contribution to the increased power density, treatment efficiency, durability, and product recovery due to its higher electrochemical surface area phenomenon, depending on the fuel cell components to get modified. The promising research results open the way for the usage of nanomaterials as a prospective material for application and development of sustainable microbial fuel cells. Though the advances in nanomaterials have opened up new promises to overcome several limitations, but challenges still remain for the real-time and large-scale applications. Finally, an outlook for the future development and scaling up of sustainable MFCs with the nanotechnology is presented with some suggestions and limitations.

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Sustainable Fuel Cells Laboratory, Centre for Pollution Control & Environmental Engineering, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India
Gunaseelan Kuppurangam & Gajalakshmi Selvaraj
Laboratory of Aquabiotics/Nanoscience, Department of Animal Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
Thirumurugan Ramasamy
Animal Quarantine and Certification Service, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Vignesh Venkatasamy
Laboratorio de Cultivo de Tejidos Vegetales, Instituto Tecnológico El Llano (ITEL)/Tecnológico Nacional de México (TecNM), El Llano, Aguascalientes, México
Sathish-Kumar Kamaraj

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Gunaseelan Kuppurangam
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Gajalakshmi Selvaraj
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Thirumurugan Ramasamy
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Vignesh Venkatasamy
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Sathish-Kumar Kamaraj
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Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tarapacá, Arica, Chile
Saravanan Rajendran
Chemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Mu. Naushad
Energy Materials, CSIR Materials Science and Manufacturing, Pretoria, South Africa
Kumar Raju
Univ. Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, ISEN, Univ. Valenciennes, UMR 8520 – IEMN, Lille, France
Rabah Boukherroub

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Kuppurangam, G., Selvaraj, G., Ramasamy, T., Venkatasamy, V., Kamaraj, SK. (2019). An Overview of Current Trends in Emergence of Nanomaterials for Sustainable Microbial Fuel Cells. In: Rajendran, S., Naushad, M., Raju, K., Boukherroub, R. (eds) Emerging Nanostructured Materials for Energy and Environmental Science. Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04474-9_8

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