Bioelectrochemical systems for transforming waste to energy

Abstract

In recent years, BES has emerged as a new and promising approach for wastewater treatment. BES use microorganisms to convert chemical energy to electric energy and other value added chemicals. Compared to the conventional techniques available, it has evolved as a low energy intensive technology with an approach of integrated management of wastewater and recovering energy. This chapter presents a review on the different types of BESs with a brief discussion of their principle and anodic and cathodic reactions involved. Further, an overview is presented of recent work with different types of wastewater used as substrate, utilising different donors and acceptors of electrons involved and the various kind of electrodes used in various BES setups. BES is still a relevantly new and emerging field that deals with harnessing energy from wastewater with the potential to change the wastewater remediation techniques in future with gross positive energy recovery.