Membrane Technologies for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Microbial Energy Production

Abstract

Environmental deterioration and energy crisis caused by ever-increasing exploitation of traditional fossil fuels are urgent problems that need to be addressed. Microbial energy conversion technologies have attracted wide attentions since they can convert chemical energy contained in wastes, like solid wastes and wastewater, into biofuels or bioelectricity, realizing environmental remediation and energy production at the same time. But the conventional methods have many limitations, like low mass transfer rate, uneven energy distribution, and strong product or by-product inhibition. The introduction of membranes in the reaction system can effectively relieve these technical bottlenecks by regulating the transfer and distribution properties of mass, heat, and energy, which play important roles on bioenergy productivity and quality.