A systematic literature review on evaluation of microbial fuel cell in bioremediating toxic compounds from wastewater sludge

Abstract The escalating concerns over environmental pollution that is severe and the need for sustainable waste treatment methods have driven significant attention toward finding innovative technological solutions. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been identified as a potential approach for sludge treatment and renewable energy production. The MFC is a bio-electrochemical system that is promising environmental remediation technology due to its simple compact design, low cost and renewable energy production. As MFC is a recently developed and emerging technology, limited studies have been reported to provide complete and inclusive analyses. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of MFC in the bioremediation of toxic compounds from wastewater sludge. The process of writing this SLR has adhered to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis) writing standard. To search for relevant articles and sources to be included in this SLR, three main databases, namely PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were utilized with studies spanned from 2003 to 2023. Various types of MFC were evaluated for their bioremediation properties and from the extensive analysis conducted, it could be deduced that dual-chamber MFC is the most effective method of bioremediation due to the presence of two separate chambers. Referring to this SLR, it supports the effectiveness of MFC in bioremediating toxic compounds present in wastewater sludge. In addition, the microbial processes within MFC contribute significantly to the removal or reduction of various contaminants. Graphical abstract