Microbial fuel cells to recover heavy metals

Heavy metals play a major role in several industrial, medical, and household applications. However, as constituents of effluents from many industries, heavy metals also pose a serious problem to the environment and public health due to their toxicity, bioaccumulation, and non-biodegradability. Conventional physical, chemical, and biological methodologies to treat wastewater containing heavy metals are energy-intensive and become ineffective if metals concentrations are below 1-100 mg L-1. Microbial fuel cells appear promising for wastewater treatment and metal recovery by bioelectrocatalysis because metal ions can be reduced and deposited by bacteria, algae, yeasts, and fungi. Interestingly, treatment of heavy metal-containing wastewater can be attempted in both anode and cathode chambers of microbial fuel cells. Here, we review the treatment of metal-containing effluents using microbial fuel cells.