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Principles of Microbial Fuel Cell for the Power Generation

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Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

Ever increasing energy demand has induced fossil fuel consumption, consequently pollution and global warming driving the world towards an unprecedented high and potentially devastating energy crisis. Therefore, water and energy securities are considered as major concerns in present scenario. Organic waste/wastewater signifies as a potential renewable feedstock to generate various forms of bioenergy aside from the remediation process by regulating the biological process. Bioenergy has gained significant attention as a sustainable and futuristic alternative to fossil fuels. Using waste for bioenergy through its remediation has instigated considerable interest and has further opened a new avenue for the use of renewable and inexhaustible energy sources. Therefore, the field of wastewater management and alternative energy are the most unexplored fields of Biotechnology and Science (Massoud et al. 2009). Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is gaining popularity as a promising tool for simultaneous waste treatment and current generation without polluting environment. The complete breakdown of a wide range of organic substrates to carbon dioxide and water is usually only possible with several enzymatic reaction steps which is easily achieved in MFCs (Logan 2008). Though research on MFCs was initiated in the 1960s during NASA’s space explorations, rapid gain in MFC research was observed during the last two decades.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bioprocess Engineering Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India

    Soumya Pandit & Debabrata Das

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  1. Soumya Pandit
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  2. Debabrata Das
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Correspondence to Debabrata Das .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India

    Debabrata Das

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Pandit, S., Das, D. (2018). Principles of Microbial Fuel Cell for the Power Generation. In: Das, D. (eds) Microbial Fuel Cell. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66793-5_2

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