ABSTRACT
The presence of active pharmaceutical compounds in water can pose a potential risk to human health and the environment due to their eco-toxic and endocrine disrupting nature. Pharmaceutical compounds such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, beta-blockers, lipid regulators, X-ray contrast media, and anti-itching drugs represent a class of emerging pollutants with a concentration range of ng L−1 to µg L−1 in domestic wastewater. Since pharmaceutical compounds cannot be efficiently removed by employing conventional wastewater treatment technologies, the development of efficient and reliable treatment technologies for the elimination of these emerging pollutants is essential. One such upcoming treatment technology is microbial fuel cells (MFCs), a bio-electrochemical system that decomposes organic matter present in wastewater and simultaneously harvests electricity utilizing microorganisms as the biocatalyst. This chapter provides a detailed overview of the treatment of different pharmaceutical compounds present in wastewater using MFC to predict the future application of this technology. Both the anodic and cathodic degradation approaches of pharmaceuticals using MFC are discussed in this chapter along with a concise future scope to update the readers on possible upcoming research areas in this field.
