Progress in electricity generation from biomass using microbial fuel cell MFC)

By applying bacteria as anodic catalyst, microbial fuel cell (MFC) can directly convert biomass energy into electrical energy, provided a new way for biomass utilization. Previous studies showed that the substrates and their concentration substantially affected performance of MFC. High power output was obtained when simple organic such as volatile fatty acids (VFA), alcohols or glucose was used as substrate. However, physical, chemical or even biological pretreatment methods were needed when substrate was complex organic. Addition of simple organic as co-substrate was also demonstrated to be an efficient way for refractory compounds degradation in MFC. Using biomass as substrates, MFC will be applied in area such as bioenergy recovery from wastewater, power supply in outfield and biosensors.