RECENT PROGRESS IN MODELING AND SIMULATION OF MICROBIAL FUEL CELL

Abstract

Microbial Fuel Cells offer promising prospects on the renewable energy field as they make it possible to produce electrical power and treat the wastewater, which is used as fuel, simultaneously. The interest for the study and development of this technology has significantly increased from the eighties to nowadays. Since then many scientific efforts have been made in order to optimize these devices by focusing on experimental work. In contrast, the modeling and optimization of MFCs have taken more time to attract researchers' attention and only recently more works on modeling have proliferated. The current article is aimed at looking into the state of the modeling and simulation of MFCs owing to their importance in the understanding and optimization of this technology. To that end, we have carried out a review of the most prominent models released up to now and classified them. Eventually, we will discuss the outcomes obtained by the application of these models to different MFC set-ups, whose main components and fuel input vary from case to case and let us gather worthy information on the performance of this type of cells