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Bio‐analytical applications of microbial fuel cell–based biosensors for onsite water quality monitoring
Author(s) -
ElMekawy A.,
Hegab H.M.,
Pant D.,
Saint C.P.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1111/jam.13631
Subject(s) - microbial fuel cell , biochemical engineering , environmental science , computer science , water quality , quality (philosophy) , multidisciplinary approach , process engineering , engineering , electricity generation , ecology , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics , biology , social science , sociology , power (physics) , philosophy
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. MFC s have the advantages of simplicity in design and efficiency for onsite sensing. Even though some sensing applications of MFC s 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 MFC s 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 MFC s over established technology are also considered as well as future work required to establish their routine use.