Microbial Fuel Cells: Innovations and Applications
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "D2: Electrochem: Batteries, Fuel Cells, Capacitors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 January 2027 | Viewed by 756
Editor
Interests: microbial fuel cells; resource recovery from wastes; water and wastewater treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a promising and sustainable bioelectrochemical technology that leverages the metabolic activity of microorganisms to directly convert organic matter into electricity. This capability allows MFCs to perform critical environmental functions—such as degrading pollutants, removing heavy metals, and recovering valuable nutrients—while simultaneously generating renewable energy.
While traditional research has focused on wastewater treatment and power generation, the scope of MFCs has expanded into a versatile interdisciplinary platform. Innovations now include enzyme-based MFCs, photosynthetic and algae-assisted systems, constructed wetland-MFCs, hydroponic integrations, and microbial desalination cells. Beyond energy and resource recovery, MFCs are also advancing as sensitive tools for environmental biosensing and medical diagnostics.
Nevertheless, transitioning from laboratory-scale innovation to real-world application faces persistent challenges. These include low power density, limitations in electron transfer efficiency, material stability issues such as biofouling and catalyst durability, and high initial costs. Overcoming these barriers requires advances in materials, design, system integration, and scalable implementation.
This Special Issue aims to gather cutting-edge research that addresses these challenges and drives the field forward. We invite original research and review articles focused on novel materials, inventive reactor configurations, performance optimization, and scalable applications. Submissions that apply AI-assisted modeling, machine learning, and data-driven analysis are particularly encouraged, as they hold significant potential for accelerating development and deployment.
We welcome contributions across a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and microbial consortia design for enhanced electroactivity.
- Advanced nanomaterials (e.g., graphene, carbon nanotubes) for electrodes, membranes, and catalysts.
- Novel designs and modifications of MFC components.
- Innovative reactor architectures and system configurations.
- Multipurpose applications in wastewater treatment, bioremediation, biosensing, agriculture, and desalination.
- Scaling-up strategies, techno-economic analysis, and life-cycle assessment.
- Modeling, simulation, and computational optimization of MFC systems.
- Field trials, pilot-scale studies, and real-world case studies.
We look forward to your valuable submissions.
Prof. Dr. Chikashi Sato
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- microbial fuel cells
- advanced materials
- novel designs
- optimization
- genetic engineering
- case studies
- field trials
- AI
- machine learning
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