Search

Rapid scale-up and intensification of the livestock and poultry farming industry generates massive amount of wastewater that greatly contributes to the environmental pollution in the vicinity. The microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an electrochemical technology that enables removal of organic pollutants in the wastewater and power generation concomitantly with the aid of microorganisms. This technology has a great potential in treating high-concentration wastewater released from the livestock and poultry farming. The present study described the categories of MFCs and current research status of its application in wastewater treatment from two aspects: 1) removal of organic pollutants (e.g., chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total phosphorus, and antibiotics) and 2) electricity production performance. The potential of using multiple MFC technologies together in wastewater treatment was also elaborated. This study revealed the existing problems associated with current MFC technologies and provided directions for future research, including equipment scale-up, development of novel coupling MFC technologies, interpretation of interactions among controllable parameters, and in-depth exploitation of mechanisms underlying pollutant removal and electron transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]