Microbial fuel cell (MFC) power performance improvement through enhanced microbial electrogenicity

• Published in: Biotechnology advances 2018-07, Vol.36 (4), p.1316-1327
• Main Authors: Li, Ming, Zhou, Minghua, Tian, Xiaoyu, Tan, Chaolin, McDaniel, Cameron T., Hassett, Daniel J., Gu, Tingyue
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acclimatization; Biochemical fuel cells; Bioelectric Energy Sources; Biofilm; Biofilms; Bioremediation; Communities; Electrogenic microorganism; Fuel cells; Gene expression; Microbial community; Microbial Consortia; Microbial fuel cell; Microbiology; Microorganisms; Nuclear fuels; Organic chemistry; Oxidation-Reduction; Parameters; Synthetic Biology
• ISSN: 0734-9750; 1873-1899
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2018.04.010

Within the past 5 years, tremendous advances have been made to maximize the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for both “clean” bioenergy production and bioremediation. Most research efforts have focused on parameters including (i) optimizing reactor configuration, (ii) electrode construction, (iii) addition of redox-active, electron donating mediators, (iv) biofilm acclimation and feed nutrient adjustment, as well as (v) other parameters that contribute to enhanced MFC performance. To date, tremendous advances have been made, but further improvements are needed for MFCs to be economically practical. In this review, the diversity of electrogenic microorganisms and microbial community changes in mixed cultures are discussed. More importantly, different approaches including chemical/genetic modifications and gene regulation of exoelectrogens, synthetic biology approaches and bacterial community cooperation are reviewed. Advances in recent years in metagenomics and microbiomes have allowed researchers to improve bacterial electrogenicity of robust biofilms in MFCs using novel, unconventional approaches. Taken together, this review provides some important and timely information to researchers who are examining additional means to enhance power production of MFCs. •Numerous electrogenic microorganisms for microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are reviewed.•The impact of microbiota changes in biofilms on electrogenicity is discussed.•Chemical and genetic techniques that enhance biofilm electrogenicity are reviewed.•A forward-looking synthetic biology approach to enhance power output is presented.