**Author details**

*Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development*

During the early stage of MFC technology, it was considered that this technology could only be used for the treatment of the limited wastewater, but in the recent years, it has been seen that it could be used in the treatment of almost all kinds of industrial, agricultural and municipal wastewater. The most suitable temperature studied for electricity generation via MFC is about 30°C in a regulated climate. Glycerol wastewater, the main source of pollution in the biodiesel industries, has reported a maximum

is an important characteristic for an effective and efficient treatment technology. An earlier study has reported the simultaneous methane and bio-electricity production in the anaerobic digestion process for higher concentrated wastewater at a longer detention time [62]. MFC with certain microbes have the ability for removable of organic matter, sulfides, nitrides, phosphorous, salinity, etc. Do et al. [110] reported

MFC is a wonderful technology in transferring the chemical energy inside the wide varieties of the waste organic matter with the help of the microorganism into bio-electricity. The current MFC technology is capable of producing only low power outputs which are suitable for small telemetry and wireless sensor system with a small power requirement in the remote areas. However, [39] achieved a peak power

With a minor adjustment, MFCs could also be used to generate biohydrogen instead of bio-electricity that could be extracted and processed for later use. The anode potential is improved with an external voltage of 0.23 V for overcoming the thermodynamic barrier which is much lesser than the conventional fermentation process. The electron and hydrogen ion produced by the microbial activities at the anodic chamber combines at an oxygen devoid cathode chamber generating biohydrogen. MFC has a potential of about 8–9 mol H2/mol glucose in comparison to 4 mol H2/mol glucose produced from a conventional fermentation process [52]. In order to produce hydrogen gas in a standard MFC, the anodizing potential for an

The MFC is also utilized as an electrochemical biosensor for pollutant analysis. The metabolic activities of the electrogenic microorganisms are highly affected by the sudden change in the concentration of the targeted analyte in the exposed aquatic environment and are reflected as a change of the output electric signal. MFC sensor is a self-sustained sensor unlike other types of the biosensor which require an external source of power. The biofilm-electrode is used as the sensing

Anaerobic treatment is most commonly used to treat dairy wastewaters, mainly hybrid anaerobic and UASB digesters. Upstream anaerobic sludge blanket reactors

with 81% COD removal using dairy wastewater as a substrate

the maximum of 90% COD removal and 80% columbic efficiency.

with 3D laminated composites as electrodes [39].

additional voltage must be increased roughly 0.23 V or more.

[109]. The low cost and the operational stability

**15.1 Treatment of wastewater**

surface power density 600 mW/m2

**15.2 Bio-electricity**

density of 122 W/m3

**15.3 Biohydrogen**

**15.4 Bio-sensor**

**16. Conclusion**

element in the MFC sensor [67].

**120**

Aman Dongre1 , Monika Sogani<sup>2</sup> \*, Kumar Sonu<sup>2</sup> , Zainab Syed1 and Gopesh Sharma1

1 Department of Biosciences, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

2 Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

\*Address all correspondence to: monika.sogani@jaipur.manipal.edu

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
