Conception of a Prototype Microbial Fuel Cell for Wastewater Treatment

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging technology with multiple exciting applications in the future. Most of the research effort so far has been focused towards wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery; however, the process of scaling-up an MFC is not straightforward due to inherent limitations. In this study, we introduce a novel prototype MFC that is one of the largest constructed so far (working volume of 28 L) and one of the first that was specifically designed as a part of a modular system with real applicability for wastewater treatment. Although its design needs to be optimized, the MFC showed promises, being able to generate stable electricity generation during a period of 4 months, while treating domestic wastewater. The most interesting characteristics of the prototype MFC were its low internal resistance of around 30 Ω and high open circuit voltage of nearly 0.8 V.