Complete Microbial Fuel Cell Fabrication Using Additive Layer Manufacturing

You, Jiseon; Fan, Hangbing; Winfield, Jonathan; Ieropoulos, Ioannis

doi:10.3390/molecules25133051

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…However, there still is scope for improvement; several studies have come up with cheap and commonly available materials that can be used to make separator membranes in microbial fuel cells. Khalili et al [204] explored the use of unglazed wall ceramic (UGWC) and unglazed floor ceramic (UGFC) as materials for separating media [205,206]. It was observed that UGFC-based microbial fuel cells produced a maximum power density of 106.89mW m −2 and UGWC-based microbial fuel cells produced a maximum power density of 321mW m −2 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wastewater treatment and energy production by microbial fuel cells

Siddiqui

Bhatnagar

Dhingra

et al. 2021

Biomass Conv. Bioref.

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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 in one go, as they perform bioelectrochemical 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. It overall discusses the various ways in which MFCs outperform other wastewater treatment technologies by significantly decreasing sludge production and being environment-friendly, and also some limitations and drawbacks that MFCs face owing to the fact that they are relatively newer technologies and still require decades of modifications until they reach excellent output rates. MFCs are known not only for wastewater treatment but also for contaminant removal, heavy metal removal, biohydrogen production, applications in biosensors, etc., as also discussed in this article.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wastewater treatment and energy production by microbial fuel cells

Siddiqui

Bhatnagar

Dhingra

et al. 2021

Biomass Conv. Bioref.

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“…Despite such tremendous potential, studies emphasized the challenges in system design and fabrication, which must be addressed to improve their performance and robustness, especially for scaling-up and commercialization (Dhar et al, 2016b;Sim et al, 2018;Zakaria and Dhar, 2019). Specifically, developing a low-cost and efficient fabrication technique is imperative for advancing METs (Bian et al, 2018a;Theodosiou et al, 2020;You et al, 2020). The utilization of conventional subtractive manufacturing methods is time-consuming and highly laborious and can generate wastes from cutting materials away from larger pieces (Theodosiou et al, 2020;You et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, developing a low-cost and efficient fabrication technique is imperative for advancing METs (Bian et al, 2018a;Theodosiou et al, 2020;You et al, 2020). The utilization of conventional subtractive manufacturing methods is time-consuming and highly laborious and can generate wastes from cutting materials away from larger pieces (Theodosiou et al, 2020;You et al, 2020). Moreover, the precise manufacturing of miniaturized METs for applications like biosensors is also challenging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, construction defects such as widening of spacings between parts and fittings or unwanted pinholes may result in the intrusion of microbubbles, which can significantly reduce the biosensing performance (Fraiwan et al, 2013). Therefore, developing a highly functional, low-cost, and environmentally sustainable fabrication method is essential for reducing time lags toward commercialization of METs (You et al, 2017;Bian et al, 2018a;You et al, 2020). The additive manufacturing (AM) process or threedimensional printing (3DP) has been expanding rapidly in recent years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The additive manufacturing (AM) process or threedimensional printing (3DP) has been expanding rapidly in recent years. Briefly, 3DP generates 3D structures from computer-aided design (CAD) models by adding the material layer-by-layer, allowing rapid and precise fabrication of sophisticated structures and devices with complex geometry with minimum human interventions (Geissler and Xia, 2004;Bian et al, 2018b;You et al, 2020). Due to these promising features, 3DP has been implemented in various fields, including industrial prototype printing, aerospace (Griffiths, 2015), medical implants (Murphy and Atala, 2014;Rasperini et al, 2015), and arts (Walters and Davies, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Mini-Review on Applications of 3D Printing for Microbial Electrochemical Technologies

Chung

Dhar

2021

Front. Energy Res.

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For the past two decades, many successful applications of microbial electrochemical technologies (METs), such as bioenergy generation, environmental monitoring, resource recovery, and platform chemicals production, have been demonstrated. Despite these tremendous potentials, the scaling-up and commercialization of METs are still quite challenging. Depending on target applications, common challenges may include expensive and tedious fabrication processes, prolonged start-up times, complex design requirements and their scalability for large-scale systems. Incorporating the three-dimensional printing (3DP) technologies have recently emerged as an effective and highly promising method for fabricating METs to demonstrate power generation and biosensing at the bench scale. Notably, low-cost and rapid fabrication of complex and miniaturized designs of METs was achieved, which is not feasible using the traditional methods. Utilizing 3DP showed tremendous potentials to aid the optimization of functional large-scale METs, which are essential for scaling-up purposes. Moreover, 3D-printed bioanode could provide rapid start-up in the current generation from METs without any time lags. Despite numerous review articles published on different scientific and applied aspects of METs, as per the authors’ knowledge, no published review articles explicitly highlighted the applicability and potential of 3DP for developing METs. Hence, this review targets to provide a current overview and status of 3DP applications for advancing METs and their future outlook.

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