Special Section
Microbial fuel cells
The September 1, 2006, issue of Environmental Science & Technology contains a special section on microbial fuel cells.
The feature article presents the basic characteristics of microbial fuel cells and describes their potential applications. The authors conclude that the most immediate application is for wastewater treatment—a process that also generates excess electricity.
In the research section of this issue, the challenges of producing increased power densities and making smaller reactors are reviewed. Several other technical papers address ion transport through membranes used in certain types of microbial fuel cells and factors that affect power densities achieved with reactors that use oxygen, ferricyanide, or iron oxides as the cathode. Although most microbial fuel cells are based on bacterial oxidation of organic substrates, another paper looks at a reactor sustained through bacterial oxidation of sulfides.
- Audio Introduction to the Special Section* [3min 19sec | 3MB | mp3 format]
- Comment: Energy diversity brings stability
- Feature: Microbial Fuel Cells--Challenges and Applications
- Critical Review: Microbial Fuel Cells: Methodology and Technology
- Challenges and Constraints of Using Oxygen Cathodes in Microbial Fuel Cells
- A Bipolar Membrane Combined with Ferric Iron Reduction as an Efficient Cathode System in Microbial Fuel Cells
- Effects of Membrane Cation Transport on pH and Microbial Fuel Cell Performance
- An Upflow Microbial Fuel Cell with an Interior Cathode: Assessment of the Internal Resistance by Impedance Spectroscopy
- Microbial Fuel Cells for Sulfide Removal
* If you have trouble listening to the audio file, download the free Quicktime Player for Windows or Mac. If you have trouble playing the audio file inside of your web browser, try downloading the file to your computer; right-click (control-click on Mac) on the link, and select the menu option for downloading or saving the file.
