Advanced microbial fuel cell for biosensor applications to detect quality parameters of pollutants

Wastewater generated through various processes can be characterized by chemical composition, physical appearance, and biological activities. Monitoring the quality and concentration of pollutants is a determining parameter for the selection of a suitable wastewater treatment process. Conventional techniques or sensors used for the analysis of water quality parameters are time-consuming, expensive, complicated, rely on an external power source, and have reproducibility issues. Hence, the research community has focused on the application of the self-powered microbial fuel cell (MFC) system as a biosensor for sensing the contaminants from effluent streams. MFC offers online and in-situ measurement of environmental monitoring parameters such as biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, heavy metals, volatile fatty acid, toxicity detection, gas detection, microbial activities estimation, and can power the external sensors. This chapter overviews the characteristics of biosensors and various applications of MFC-based biosensors for environmental monitoring. Such MFC system offers self-sustained, reliable, and reproducible system as a low-cost solution and warning alarm for shocking load conditions with changes in wastewater properties, and hence can be an effective alternative to the conventional sensors. However, as a bioelectrochemical system, system stability, repetitiveness, and reproducibility of results are some challenges to be overcome for the long-term use of MFC for the biosensing applications.