Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
SIGMA JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND NATURAL SCIENCES, cilt.42, sa.1, ss.273-288, 2024 (ESCI)
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) have attracted great interest in recent years as a technology that
uses microorganisms to oxidize organic and inorganic materials at the anode for the purpose
of bioelectricity generation and bioremediation. In MFC systems, energy can be obtained by
using all kinds of organic matter as substrate, from simple molecules (acetate, carbohydrates,
glucose etc.) to complex compounds (molasses, cellulose, wastewater, waste sludge, domestic
agricultural and animal wastes etc.). In addition to wastewater treatment, MFC technology
has additional benefits such as sulfate removal, heavy metal removal, denitrification and nitrification. However, the low power efficiencies and potential losses of these systems limit their
applicability on a real scale. Although the anode chamber of MFC systems has been studied
in detail over many different parameters, the cathodic electron acceptors have been studied
relatively less. In MFC systems, electron acceptors are one of the main parameters influencing
power generation as they contribute to overcoming potential losses at the cathode. Oxygen has
a relatively high redox potential and is the traditional electron acceptor used in MFC systems
as it is reduced to form a clean product like water. However, the need for alternative electron
acceptors has increased due to the fact that feeding oxygen to the cathode chamber requires
additional energy and the need for catalysts due to the slow O2 reduction rate. Electricity generation by reducing certain electron acceptors at the cathode chamber has promising potential
for bioenergy production, and the use of pollutants such as nitrogen species, heavy metals
and perchlorate as electron acceptors reduces the cost for their specific treatment. This review
aims to summarize the various electron acceptors used in MFC systems, compare their effects
on MFC performance, and discuss possible future areas.