ABSTRACT
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can be best dened as fuel cells where microbes act as catalysts in degrading the organic content to generate electricity (Muralidharan et al., 2011). MFCs can convert biodegradable and reduced compounds, such as glucose, acetate, and lactate, directly into electricity, offering a clean and renewable source of energy (Zhang et al., 2012). In addition, MFCs may also assist environmental protection, for example, through wastewater treatment. In MFC devices, microbial cells in the anode chamber play a key role in catalyzing the oxidation of an organic substrate (the fuel) and transferring the electrons, derived from the metabolic processes to the electrode (Zhang, 2011). Recently, MFC technology has been developed as a novel biotechnology for the harvest of energy from biodegradable materials, and the interest in MFCs is steadily increasing mainly because they offer the possibility of directly harvesting electricity from organic wastes and renewable biomass.
