Microbial Electrochemical Technology for Wastewater Treatment

Dear Colleagues,

Microbial electrochemistry refers to the electrochemical phenomenon exhibited by microorganisms in the process of electron exchange with an extracellular electron acceptor or donor, the principle of which is the extracellular electron transfer process. The first evidence of microbial electrochemical phenomena can be traced to 1911. Dr. Potter, a British scientist, established that microorganisms metabolize organic matter to generate bioelectricity. Prof. Byung Hong Kim of South Korea found the wide existence of electrochemically active bacteria in nature and created the "mediator-less microbial fuel cell" in 2002, laying the groundwork for its widespread use. In 2004, Pennsylvania State University professor Bruce E. Logan invented a single-chamber microbial fuel cell for wastewater treatment and in situ electricity recovery, which sped up the development of the technology in this area.

The research on microbial electrochemical systems for water treatment has grown rapidly over the past fifteen years of development. Great progress has been made in extracellular electron transport mechanisms, key material development, and functional expansion. In addition to the earliest microbial fuel cell (MFC) configurations, microbial electrochemical systems with different functions—such as microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) for hydrogen production, microbial electrosynthesis systems (MES) of high-value chemical productions, and microbial desalination cells (MDC) for organic removal and synchronous desalination—have also been successfully developed.  Additionally, the application of microbial electrochemical technology in surface and ground water treatment, polluted soil remediation, bioelectrochemical sensors, etc. have also been developed. The main goals of this Special Issue are to showcase the most recent developments, disseminate intriguing innovations, and discuss the challenges associated with using microbial electrochemical technology for wastewater treatment.  Studies presenting and discussing recent advances in the following topics are welcomed:

• Interspecies electron transfer within microbes.
• The mechanism of extracellular electron transport in microorganisms.
• Microbial electrochemical technology for energy recovery from wastewater.
• Microbial electrochemical technology for resource recovery from wastewater.
• The construction design and operation of scaled-up microbial electrochemical systems.
• Microbial electrochemical remediation technology for polluted water environments.
• The design and application of microbial electrochemical biosensors.

Prof. Dr. Weihua He
Dr. Guohong Liu
Dr. Dandan Liang
Guest Editors

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• microbial electrochemical technology
• wastewater treatment
• energy and resource recovery
• interspecies electron transfer
• extracellular electron transport
• scaled-up system
• microbial electrochemical remediation technology
• microbial electrochemical biosensor