Photosynthetic microbial fuel cell for bioenergy and valuable production: A review of circular bio-economy approach

Photosynthetic microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) are environmentally friendly fuel cells employed to produce renewable bioelectricity. These fuel cells require light to support their operation and are efficient to achieve high-power output. Depending upon the type of organism, they can be assisted by photosynthetic cell machinery in plants, bacteria, and algae. Algae assisted PMFCs are advantageous as they grow rapidly, require less space, produce free nascent oxygen and value-added products including bioelectricity. In this regard, this review elu-cidates the application and advantages of algae assisted PMFC over other PMFCs and their utility for recovery of bioelectricity and value-added products like polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, lutein, carbohydrates, proteins, polyhydroxyalkanoates, etc. Furthermore, the potential of generated bioelectricity and simultaneous resource recovery employing PMFCs are highlighted due to their low cost. Thus, this review can be a rapid guidebook for budding researchers in the field of PMFC's and possibly expedite the economical commerciali-zation of PMFCs.

Automated summary

Photosynthetic microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) are environmentally friendly fuel cells that use light to produce renewable bioelectricity. Algae assisted PMFCs have advantages such as rapid growth, smaller space requirement, production of free oxygen, and value-added products. This review highlights the application and advantages of algae assisted PMFCs for bioelectricity generation and recovery of value-added products. The low cost and potential for resource recovery using PMFCs are also emphasized.