Recent advancements in microbial fuel cells: A review on its electron transfer mechanisms, microbial community, types of substrates and design for bio-electrochemical treatment.

The development in urbanization, growth in industrialization and deficiency in crude oil wealth has made to focus more for the renewable and also sustainable spotless energy resources. In the past two decades, the concepts of microbial fuel cell have caught more considerations among the scientific societies for the probability of converting, organic waste materials into bio-energy using microorganisms catalyzed anode, and enzymatic/microbial/abiotic/biotic cathode electro-chemical reactions. The added benefit with MFCs technology for waste water treatment is numerous bio-centered processes are available such as sulfate removal, denitrification, nitrification, removal of chemical oxygen demand and biological oxygen demand and heavy metals removal can be performed in the same MFC designed systems. The various factors intricate in MFC concepts in the direction of bioenergy production consists of maximum coulombic efficiency, power density and also the rate of removal of chemical oxygen demand which calculates the efficacy of the MFC unit. Even though the efficacy of MFCs in bioenergy production was initially quietly low, therefore to overcome these issues few modifications are incorporated in design and components of the MFC units, thereby functioning of the MFC unit have improvised the rate of bioenergy production to a substantial level by this means empowering application of MFC technology in numerous sectors including carbon capture, bio-hydrogen production, bioremediation, biosensors, desalination, and wastewater treatment. The present article reviews about the microbial community, types of substrates and information about the several designs of MFCs in an endeavor to get the better of practical difficulties of the MFC technology.

Overview of Current Developments in Biobutanol Production Methods and Future Perspectives.

Renewable biobutanol production is receiving more attention toward substituting fossil-based nonrenewable fuels. Biobutanol is recognized as the top most biofuel with extraordinary properties as compared with gasoline. The demand for biobutanol production is increasing enormously due to application in various industries as chemical substituent. Biobutanol production technology has attracted many researchers toward implementation of replacing cost-effective substrate and easy method to recover from the fermentation broth. Sugarcane bagasse, algal biomass, crude glycerol, and lignocellulosic biomass are potential cost-effective substrates which could replace consistent glucose-based substrates. The advantages and limitations of these substrates have been discussed in this chapter. Moreover, finding the integrated biobutanol recovery methods is an important factor parameter in production of biobutanol. This chapter also concentrated on possibilities and drawbacks of obtainable integrated biobutanol recovery methods. Thus, successful process involving cost-effective substrate and biobutanol recovery methods could help to implementation of biobutanol production industry. Overall, this chapter has endeavored to increase the viability of industrial production of biobutanol.