Review of bio-hydrogen production and new application in the pollution control via microbial electrolysis cell

Abstract

Breaking through the “fermentation barrier” bottleneck of conventional biological hydrogen production technology, achieving the depth use of carbon source, and obtaining the higher hydrogen production, bioelectrocatalysis technology assisted fermentation process has vast prospective of applications. The main technical route is the microbial electrolysis cell (MEC). Based on the cutting-edge researches carried out by worldwide scholars, this paper focuses on the comprehensive discussion of MEC design, substrate selection, electrode materials, performance optimization, microbiology, as well as the main problems of the corresponding research. The review also presents recommendations and solutions accordingly. Finally, the prospects of microbial electrocatalysis assisted technology in the field of environmental pollution control and energy recovery application have been disclosed.

Keywords:

• Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC)
• Bio-hydrogen production
• Fermentation barrier
• Pollution control

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Contract Nos. 21276248, 50808152), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX2-EW-402-02), key project of Fujian Provincial Science & Technology Program (Grant No. 2012Y0069), and for their supports for this study.