Application of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) for Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment: An Overview and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Pharmaceutical wastewater (PWW) is rapidly growing into one of the world’s most serious environmental and public health issues. Existing wastewater treatment systems carry numerous loopholes in supplying the ever-increasing need for potable water resulting from rises in population, urbanization, and industrial growth, and the volume of wastewater produced is growing each day. At present, conventional treatment methods, such as coagulation, sedimentation, oxidation, membrane filtration, flocculation, etc., are used to treat PWW. In contrast to these, the application of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for decontaminating PWW can be a promising technology to replace these methods. MFC technologies have become a trending research topic in recent times. MFCs have also garnered the interest of researchers worldwide as a promising environmental remediation technique. This review extensively discusses the flaws in standalone conventional processes and the integration of MFCs to enhance electricity production and contaminant removal rates, especially with respect to PWW. This article also summarizes the studies reported on various antibiotics and wastes from pharmaceutical industries treated by MFCs, and their efficiencies. Furthermore, the review explains why further research is needed to establish the actual efficiency of MFCs to achieve sustainable, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective wastewater treatment. A brief on technoeconomic impacts has also been made to provide a glimpse of the way these technologies might replace present-day conventional methods.

Microbial fuel cell review: thermodynamic and infuencing factors, exoelectrogenic bacteria, anode and cathode configuration

“…19 Figure 4(b) shows that MFC research is distributed throughout many countries. 37 Nonetheless, given the challenges of considerably enhancing the performance of these systems, the highly optimistic projections that had emerged from the first findings have reduced remarkably. Although MFCs are still the most researched BESs, this subject has developed significantly in the last two decades because of technological development.…”

“…24 In 2001, the model of benthic fuel cells, which can generate power from marine sediments, was developed. 37 The chemical energy of organic waste, such as low-strength wastewaters and lignocellulosic biomass, can be converted by BESs into electricity, hydrogen or other chemical products in MECs, MFCs or other systems such as MDCs. 11 MFCs are a technology that uses the catalytic activity of microbes to transform the chemical energy found in organic substances into electrical energy.…”

“…40 The electrochemical processes identified in an MFC that facilitate the oxidation of acetate (CH 3 COO) and equipped with an abiotic air cathode, where the reduction of oxygen present in the ambient air occurs, are expressed in reactions 1-3: 41 19 (b) MFC research is distributed throughout many countries. 37 Anode :…”

Investigating the Performance of a Zinc Oxide Impregnated Polyvinyl Alcohol-Based Low-Cost Cation Exchange Membrane in Microbial Fuel Cells

“…MFC is gaining prominence as a viable alternative technology for capturing electricity through wastewater treatment, providing sustainable energy generation from a plentiful and low-cost source [ 32 ]. To make MFC economically feasible, manufacturing costs must be reduced by rationalizing its structure to obtain increased coulombic efficiency (CE) and volumetric power density [ 33 ]. Not long ago, good progress is seen in attempts to improve MFC performance.…”

Magnetic Core–Shell Fe3O4@polypyrrole@4-vinylpyridine Composites for the Removal of Multiple Dyes

“…Scientists have done a lot of in-depth research studies on these situations. Many methods have been developed to treat dyes including the membrane separation method, , extraction method, , radiation method, , oxidation method, ultrasonic degradation method, coagulation sedimentation method, magnetic separation method, − and so on . Nevertheless, these methods have the disadvantages of high cost and complicated operation .…”