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Updated: Jul 26, 2026

Waste Water Derived Electroactive Microbial Biofilms: Growth, Maintenance, and Basic Characterization
Published on: December 29, 2013
A Review on Microbial Electrocatalysis Systems Coupled with Membrane Bioreactor to Improve Wastewater Treatment
Jicun Wang1, Shuai Zhao2, Apurva Kakade3
1Gansu Key Laboratory of Biomonitoring and Bioremediation for Environment Pollution, School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Rd, Lanzhou 730000, China. wangjc17@lzu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Microbial electrocatalysis is an electro reaction that uses microorganisms as a biocatalyst, mainly including microbial electrolytic cells (MEC) and microbial fuel cells (MFC), which has been used for wastewater treatment. However, the low processing efficiency is the main drawback for its practical application and the additional energy input of MEC system results in high costs. Recently, MFC/MEC coupled with other treatment processes, especially membrane bioreactors (MBR), has been used for high efficiency and low-cost wastewater treatment. In these systems, the wastewater treatment efficiency can be improved after two units are operated and the membrane fouling of MBR can also be alleviated by the electric energy that was generated in the MFC. In addition, the power output of MFC can also reduce the energy consumption of microbial electrocatalysis systems. This review summarizes the recent studies about microbial electrocatalysis systems coupled with MBR, describing the combination types and microorganism distribution, the advantages and limitations of the systems, and also addresses several suggestions for the future development and practical applications.
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