Microbial Electrochemical Technologies: Different Configurations, Electrodes and Working Principle/Microbial Electrochemical Technologies—Working Principle and Design of Biocathode

Microbial electrochemical system technology integrates microbial-based electrodes and anodes for application in environmental remediation and energy security using household and industrial waste as an action to adapt and mitigate climate change. Basically, the way MESs work is by utilizing interactions between microbes and electrodes to produce electrical energy which can be seen from the density of microbes as well as various internal and environmental factors that influence them. Of the various MESs technologies, the most prominent is the use of microbial fuel cells (MFC) which convert organic matter in wastewater into electrical energy which of course still does not have sufficient practical application in terms of power levels. In minimizing, an effective method to improve its performance is to integrate it with electrochemical capacitors, which are usually used for the purpose of storing electrical charge. This chapter describes the latest developments in integrating capacitors with microbial fuel cells (MFC), starting from explaining the theoretical and operational principles of electrochemical capacitors. In addition, the authors explore various electrochemical metrics that can be used to determine electrochemical (bio)capacitance and offer approaches to analyze such measurement data. In addition, examples of the integration of electrochemical capacitors, both internal and external, that have been used to improve the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are also described. In this chapter we will evaluate the main benefits and obstacles of implementing capacitive microbial fuel cells (MFC).