Clauwaert Peter, Aelterman Peter, Pham The Hai, De Schamphelaire Liesje, Carballa Marta, Rabaey Korneel, Verstraete Willy
Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2008 Jul;79(6):901-13. doi: 10.1007/s00253-008-1522-2. Epub 2008 May 28.
Bio-electrochemical systems (BESs) enable microbial catalysis of electrochemical reactions. Plain electrical power production combined with wastewater treatment by microbial fuel cells (MFCs) has been the primary application purpose for BESs. However, large-scale power production and a high chemical oxygen demand conversion rates must be achieved at a benchmark cost to make MFCs economical competitive in this context. Recently, a number of valuable oxidation or reduction reactions demonstrating the versatility of BESs have been described. Indeed, BESs can produce hydrogen, bring about denitrification, or reductive dehalogenation. Moreover, BESs also appear to be promising in the field of online biosensors. To effectively apply BESs in practice, both biological and electrochemical losses need to be further minimized. At present, the costs of reactor materials have to be decreased, and the volumetric biocatalyst activity in the systems has to be increased substantially. Furthermore, both the ohmic cell resistance and the pH gradients need to be minimized. In this review, these losses and constraints are discussed from an electrochemical viewpoint. Finally, an overview of potential applications and innovative research lines is given for BESs.
生物电化学系统（BESs）能够实现电化学反应的微生物催化。通过微生物燃料电池（MFCs）将单纯的发电与废水处理相结合一直是BESs的主要应用目的。然而，要使MFCs在这种情况下具有经济竞争力，必须以基准成本实现大规模发电和高化学需氧量转化率。最近，已经描述了许多展示BESs多功能性的有价值的氧化或还原反应。事实上，BESs可以产生氢气、实现反硝化或进行还原性脱卤。此外，BESs在在线生物传感器领域似乎也很有前景。为了在实践中有效应用BESs，生物和电化学损失都需要进一步最小化。目前，必须降低反应器材料的成本，并大幅提高系统中的体积生物催化剂活性。此外，欧姆电池电阻和pH梯度都需要最小化。在这篇综述中，从电化学角度讨论了这些损失和限制。最后，给出了BESs潜在应用和创新研究方向的概述。
