Trend of mathematical models in microbial fuel cell for environmental energy refinery from waste/water

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device to use for bio electrochemical energy production. Electrophilic bacteria produce electrons in their metabolic pathway and the electrons can be extracted and concentrated on electrode by the electric potential difference (i.e. Galvanic cell). The bio-electrode may provide new opportunities for the renewable energy in waste water/swage treatment plants.

For the MFC technology to be adopted by industry requires a strategy for scaling up, which, in turn, requires a better understanding of the entire fuel cell system and the potential bottlenecks in the generation of electricity. Mathematical modelling has a role to play in synthesising our knowledge of fuel cells, identifying the limiting factors in electricity generation and informing scale-up strategies. The range of interaction that can occur in a microbial fuel cell makes it difficult to foresee all of the feedbacks between the biology, chemistry and physics in a fuel cell in any new design. Thus, theoretical modeling can highlight potentially important and previously overlooked mechanisms that warrant further investigation through experimentation. The most efforts in the past have almost exclusively been concentrated on electron transport mechanism from catalytic microorganism to electrode in anode.

Here, this paper gives a comprehensive review on recent developments, advancement, and challenges for the techniques in supporting process control of microbial fuel cell. This may help many environmental researchers and modelers to get current information of modeling and simulation in biotechnology and environmental technology.