Application of microbial fuel cell (MFC) in solid waste composting.
- Author:
Jinxin CUI
1
;
Xin WANG
;
Jingchun TANG
Author Information
1. Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Ministry of Education), College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Bioelectric Energy Sources;
microbiology;
trends;
Electricity;
Electrodes;
Refuse Disposal;
methods
- From:
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology
2012;28(3):295-304
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a new technology that can recover energy from biomass with simultaneous waste treatment. This technique has been developed fast in recent years in combining with environmental techniques such as wastewater treatment, degradation of toxic pollutants and desalination. With the increase of solid waste, applying MFC in composting is promising due to its property of waste disposal with simultaneous energy generation. In this paper, the microbial community of MFCs during composting was summarized. Four major influencing factors including electrodes, separators, oxygen supplement and configurations on the performance of composting MFCs were discussed. The characteristics of composting MFC as a new technique for reducing solid waste were as follows: high microbial biomass resulted in the high current density; adaptable to different environmental conditions; self-adjustable temperature with high energy efficiency; the transportation of proton from anode to cathode were limited by different solid substrates.
