Bio‐analytical applications of microbial fuel cell–based biosensors for onsite water quality monitoring

Summary Globally, sustainable provision of high‐quality safe water is a major challenge of the 21st century. Various chemical and biological monitoring analytics are presently utilized to guarantee the availability of high‐quality water. However, these techniques still face some challenges including...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied microbiology Vol. 124; no. 1; pp. 302 - 313
Main Authors ElMekawy, A., Hegab, H.M., Pant, D., Saint, C.P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Oxford University Press 01.01.2018
Subjects
Analytical chemistry
Biochemical fuel cells
Biochemical oxygen demand
Biomonitoring
Biosensors
Electrochemistry
Environmental monitoring
Fuel cells
Fuel technology
Materials science
microbial fuel cells
Microbiology
Microorganisms
Onsite
onsite monitoring
Pollution monitoring
wastewater treatment
Water quality
Water quality management
biosensors
water quality
microbial fuel cells
wastewater treatment
onsite monitoring
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Summary:Summary Globally, sustainable provision of high‐quality safe water is a major challenge of the 21st century. Various chemical and biological monitoring analytics are presently utilized to guarantee the availability of high‐quality water. However, these techniques still face some challenges including high costs, complex design and onsite and online limitations. The recent technology of using microbial fuel cell (MFC)‐based biosensors holds outstanding potential for the rapid and real‐time monitoring of water source quality. MFCs have the advantages of simplicity in design and efficiency for onsite sensing. Even though some sensing applications of MFCs were previously studied, e.g. biochemical oxygen demand sensor, recently numerous research groups around the world have presented new practical applications of this technique, which combine multidisciplinary scientific knowledge in materials science, microbiology and electrochemistry fields. This review presents the most updated research on the utilization of MFCs as potential biosensors for monitoring water quality and considers the range of potentially toxic analytes that have so far been detected using this methodology. The advantages of MFCs over established technology are also considered as well as future work required to establish their routine use.
ISSN:1364-5072
1365-2672
DOI:10.1111/jam.13631