Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is receiving a lot of attention recently as a promising technology for generating electricity by treating organic waste resources. Over the past 20 years, the MFC technology has made rapid progress: various research on system architectures, electrochemistry, materials, and microbiology has been conducted for developing practical ideas and fundamental principles. Recently, a lot of research on scaled-up systems for practical application is being conducted in the MFC field. In this review, materials, electrochemistry, system development and scale-up systems of MFCs studied so far are reviewed, and future prospects and directions of MFC technology are presented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.