Microbial Fuel Cells for Organic‐Contaminated Soil Remedial Applications: A Review

Abstract

Efficient noninvasive techniques are desired for repairing organic‐contaminated soils. Bioelectrochemical technology, especially microbial fuel cells (MFCs), has been widely used to promote a polluted environmental remediation approach, and applications include wastewater, sludge, sediment, and soil remediation. Soil MFC remediation has been of significant concern in recent years, and thus, several aspects, including reactor configuration, electrode materials, soil conductivity, mass transfer, and microbial activity, are reviewed. Recent studies and key issues of soil MFCs and perspectives of organic‐contamination remedial application are summarized, with the aim of assisting environmental scholars and engineers to gain a comprehensive understanding of MFC remediation. Insights are also offered on how to extend applications to help soil MFC remediation technology to advance and be applied in the future on a large scale.

Environmental Biotechnology

“…Some exoelectrogens bacteria such as Geobacter sp., Shewanella, Pseudomonas and Rhodoferax have been widely studied (Li et al 2017), while fungal species Debaryomyces hansenii, Aspergillus awamori, Hansenula anomala and Mortierella polycephala (Li et al 2019) have been used for both contaminants remediation and electricity production. Pollutants waste from pulp, food, brewery/distillery industrial effluents as well as metalcontaminated and swine wastewaters, marine sediments and pesticides have also been successfully used at laboratory level to generate bioelectricity (Li et al 2017. In addition, toxic chemical waste such as phenol, p-nitrophenol, nitrobenzene, PAHs, indole, ethanolamine, and sulfide have been used as oxidizable substrates for MFCs (Li et al 2017).…”

“…Pollutants waste from pulp, food, brewery/distillery industrial effluents as well as metalcontaminated and swine wastewaters, marine sediments and pesticides have also been successfully used at laboratory level to generate bioelectricity (Li et al 2017. In addition, toxic chemical waste such as phenol, p-nitrophenol, nitrobenzene, PAHs, indole, ethanolamine, and sulfide have been used as oxidizable substrates for MFCs (Li et al 2017).…”

“…A microbial fuel cell is a promising technology of applying microorganisms as biocatalysts to oxidize organic substrates and transfer their electrons to an anodic surface to produce bioelectricity (Santoro et al 2017). Several pollutant chemical waste, such as phenol, p-nitrophenol, nitrobenzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, indole, ethanolamine and sulphide, have been used as MFCs oxidizable substrates (Li et al 2017). Thereby, MFC may provide an effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly route to energy production.…”

Bioremediation in Water Environment: Controlled Electro-Stimulation of Organic Matter Self-Purification in Aquatic Environments

“…The 12 C/ 13 C isotopic ratio allows differentiating these two possible pathways at the origin of emitted CH 4 [56] [57].…”

Factors affecting the efficiency of a bioelectrochemical system: a review

“…[1][2][3] Presently, BESs show great potential for the removal of pollutants from a variety of environments, such as wastewater, [4][5][6] contaminated sediments 7,8 and soils. [9][10][11][12] BESs can be fed any biodegradable organic matter, from simple molecules (such as carbohydrates or proteins) to complex mixtures (such as petroleum hydrocarbons or swine wastewater), that can be effectively degraded by microorganisms in the system, resulting in the output of electrical energy or hydrogen. 13,14 Consequently, BESs reduce energy loss and waste generation, 15 which greatly reduces costs compared to physical and chemical remediation techniques.…”