Research >> Research Groups

The following research groups are active in the research field of MFCs. Click on one of the links below, to read more about these labs:

• Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (Korea) - The Energy and Biotechnology Laboratory (EBL)
• Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) (China) - School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering
• Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) (China) - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (SKLUWRE)
• Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (India) - Bioengineering and Environmental Centre (BEEC) 
• Indian Institute of Technology (India) - Environmental Engineering Laboratory

• Ecole Centrale de Lyon (France) - Microbial Environmental Genomics Group within the Laboratoire Ampère
• Ghent University (Belgium) - Laboratory Microbial Ecology & Technology (LabMET)
• Newcastle University (UK) - Microbial Fuel Cell Research group (NEWMFC)
• SAPIENZA University of Rome ­– Environmental (Bio)Technology Laboratory
• Technische Universität Braunschweig – Sustainable Chemistry and Energy Research ^{GROUP UPDATE}
• Technical University of Denmark (DTU) - National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy
• Universities of Bristol (UoB) and of the West of England (UWE) - Bristol Robotics Laboratory: Energy Autonomy Group
• University of Toulouse - CNRS (France) - Laboratory of Chemical Engineering
• Wageningen University (The Netherlands) - Environmental Technology
• Wetsus (The Netherlands)

• Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (USA) - The Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB)
• Boston University (USA) - Gardner Lab
• Cornell University - Ithaca, NY - The Angenent Lab  ^{GROUP UPDATE}
• Oregon State University (USA) – Bio-Energy & Environmental Biotechnology (BEEB)
• Penn State University (USA) - The Logan Group
• The University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA) – Environmental Biotechnology Center
• US Naval Research Laboratory - Washington, D.C. (USA) – The Ringeisen Group
• University of Colorado Denver (USA) – Bio-energy for sustainable urban infrastructure
• University of Southern California (USA) – Multi-University Research Initiative Group

• University of Queensland (Australia) -  Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) 

Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (USA) - The Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) (go back to top)

The Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) focuses on developing microbiological systems that capture or develop renewable resources and also prevent or clean up environmental pollution.  Center researchers combine engineering with microbiology, molecular biology, and chemistry in order to gain an integrated understanding of how microbial ecosystems work and can be controlled to reclaim polluted water, generate energy from waste substances, and improve the public health and sustainability. 

One current focus for MFC research is understanding the interactions between the anode biofilm and anode electrochemistry.  We take a comprehensive approach by combining mathematical modeling, molecular biology, and electrochemistry.  Our goal is to establish key scientific fundamentals of the anode that translates to the engineering of an efficient MFC. 

A second focus is on integrating the anode, cathode, membrane, and physical configuration to provide a comprehensive MFC system that is well adapted to the having bacteria be the catalysts at the anode.

The home page:
http://www.biodesign.asu.edu/centers/eb/

The Angenent Lab members incorporate molecular biology techniques, such as PCR assays and hybridization assays, to solve environmental engineering problems. The research can be grouped in two areas: bioprocessing and bioaerosols. The lab consists of 3 PhD students and a MS student.

In the area of bioprocessing our goal is to optimize anaerobic fermentation processes to grow microorganisms that can convert wastes into bioenergy, such as biogas (methane), bioelectricity, and biochemicals. We convert wastewater to electricity by bacteria in microbial fuel cells and have developed a novel reactor configuration that is promising. However, further improvement in power output is necessary, and thus we are pursuing fundamental and applied research.

The home page:
http://users.seas.wustl.edu/angenent/

The MFC page:
http://users.seas.wustl.edu/angenent/MFC.html

This group of environmental microbiologists works within an Electrical Engineering Department with collaborations concerning the effect of lightning on microbial adaptation and on MFCs with specific interest in the microbiology, microbial ecology and electrical phenomena.  This group composed of about 15 people is also involved in a range of environmental genomics.

The home page:
http://www.GenomEnviron.org

The Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology (LabMET) is specialized in the domain of microbial ecology. It offers expertise about processes using mixed microbial communities. LabMET deals with biotechnology in the field of environmental, food and chemical engineering. The research group comprises a staff of about 35 academics and is part of the Department of Biochemical and Microbial Technology of the Ghent University (Belgium).

The home page:
http://labmet.ugent.be

Dr Byung Hong Kim (previous PI at The Bioelectrochemistry Laboratory, Korea Institute of Science and Technology) and his colleagues have initiated mediator-less microbial fuel cell operation and its environmental applications such as wastewater treatment and BOD sensing systems. Dr In Seop Chang was a core research member at KIST and moved to GIST in 2005. Since Dr Kim has been retired at KIST, the EBL at GIST is a one of research groups in which MFC works are most active in Korea.

We have been interested in the electron metabolism of anaerobic bacteria ranging from anaerobic fermentation to produce hydrogen and ABE to anaerobic respiration by sulfidogens, homoacetogens and metal reducers. Currently, studies are being made to characterize the microbes in the electrochemically active microbial consortium in MFC, and the electron transfer system from the microbial cell to the electrode for the development of an MFC as wastewater treatment process. The long-term goals of the laboratory are the elucidation of electrochemical processes in microbial ecology and application of redox proteins in information processing device as well as alternative energy production from waste biomass.

The home page:
http://env1.gist.ac.kr/~ebl/

Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) (China) - School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering (go back to top)

There are four members in our MFC research group, Prof. Qingliang Zhao, Ph. D student Shijie You, Junqiu Jiang and Jinna Zhang. The MFC research in our group is now supported by National Natural Science Foundation, mainly focusing on feasibility of power production from various organic substrates, the improvements of MFC design configuration and optimization of operational conditions for sustainable and scalable power output during wastewater treatment. Recently, we are developing methods for evaluations of MFC based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis.

The State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (SKLUWRE) is located in Harbin Institute of Technology. The MFC group is led by Prof. Yujie Feng, the Vice Director of the State Key Laboratory. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, the MFC group here is mainly focused on electricity generation from various waste biomass (e.g. organic wastewater, corn stover etc.), MFC architectures for wastes treatment, electrode material, electrogenic bacteria isolation and investigation on electricity generation mechanisms. The group has various collaborations and communications with Prof Bruce Logan in Penn State University.

Besides MFC, the research interests of Prof. Yujie Feng also include: - Sustainable bioenergy production (bio-ethanol) - Environmental electrochemistry - Environmental functional materials - Wastewater treatment technology and security evaluation.

There are totally 25 members in the group and 6 of them are working on MFC area, including Xin Wang, He Lee, Yaolan Liu, Heming Wang, Qiao Yang and Elle Wang.

The main focus of BEEC is to develop sustainable technologies for environment remediation. Renewable energy in the form of bioelectricity and biohydrogen (H2) from bioremediation process is one of the thrust areas of research presently being pursued.

Presently bioelectricity generation from various industrial wastewaters using microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is being pursued. The concentration is towards development of a technology to integrate with the existing treatment plant to produce sustainable energy apart from wastewater treatment. Selectively enriched mixed cultures for hydrogen production (acidogenic), acidophilic microenvironment and plain graphite electrodes were evaluated in dual and single chambered fuel cells for substrate degradation potential along with bioelectricity production using chemical wastewater as substrate. Process optimization with respect to electrode materials, membrane material, fuel cell configuration, anodic microenvironment, operation conditions, biofilm coverage on anode, etc. was being studied with various types of wastewater.

Biohydrogen production along with wastewater treatment through acidogenic fermentation using various industrial wastewaters (chemical, dairy and distillery) as substrate was studied in various reactor configurations. Reactor configuration (suspended/biofilm), mode of reactor operation (continuous/batch), inoculum preparation strategy, operating microenvironment, startup procedure, addition of co-substrate and nutrients, integration with photo-biological hydrogen production/methanogenic process, application of bioaugmentation and self-immobilization [on mesoporous material (SBA15)/activated carbon] strategies, etc. were studied for effective hydrogen production. Presently, work is being pursued on evaluation of biohydrogen production potential utilizing vegetable and agro-wastes as substrate.

Apart from this, basic and applied research on soil bioremediation, advanced biological wastewater treatment, enzyme production and its application to bioremediation, value added products from wastes and bioagumentation strategy to enhance process efficiency also being pursued.

The home page:
http://www.iictindia.org/

The Environmental Engineering Laboratory is attached to the Civil Engineering Department of the institute.  Full time five faculty members and two technical staff are associated with the laboratory. At present in this laboratory six research scholars are registered for their doctoral research, and eleven post graduate students are pursuing their research work.  This laboratory is actively involved in undertaking research projects in the leading edge area to provide solutions for environmental problems. At present the research work is mainly concentrated on the following subjects:

 - Treatment and reuse of wastewater

 - Anaerobic wastewater treatment

 - Bioenergy during wastewater treatment

 - Removal of arsenic from drinking water

 - Water quality factors influencing microbial growth, disinfection response and health assessment

 - Application of mono- and bimetallic nanoparticles for the degradation of organic pollutants

More details of ongoing projects and faculty are available on department link:

http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/departments/home.php?deptcode=CE

Newcastle University (UK) - Microbial Fuel Cell Research group (NEWMFC) (go back to top)

The Microbial Fuel Cell research group operates between the Schools of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials and Civil Engineering and Geosciences combining unique expertise in fuel cell science and engineering with microbial ecology and  environmental engineering.

The research focuses on developing microbiological systems that develop renewable resources while mitigating environmental pollution.  The researchers combine engineering with the latest developments in molecular microbial ecology, ecological theory and biofilm modelling.  The groups work is informed by the need to reduce the energy used for wastewater treatment; recovering energy from the wastewater itself, as part of the wastewater treatment process.

A focus for MFC research is understanding the interactions between the anode biofilm and anode electrochemistry and to establish scientific fundamentals, through modeling and experimental studies that steer the engineering of efficient MFCs. In this context we focus on integrating the anode, cathode and membrane to design MFC systems that use bacteria as the catalyst at the anode to intensify waste treatment and also generate useful electrical energy.

An additional focus is to explore biological fuel cells that can utilize glucose for body implantable power sources

The group is a collaboration between Professor’s Ian Head; Keith Scott and Tom Curtis; Dr Eileen Yu with a team of 6 PhD students; 3 postdoctoral fellows and 1 visiting research fellow.  In addition we collaborate internationally with Bruce Logan at Penn State, Cristian Picioreanu and Mark van Loosdrecht at the Technical University of Delft and groups in

Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena SPAIN (Prof. Carlos Godínez) and University of Bucarest; Romania (Prof. I Stamatin), through an EU Marie Curie ToK programme in Biological and Microbial Fuel Cells.

Oregon State University (USA) – Bio-Energy & Environmental Biotechnology (BEEB) (go back to top)

The research in BEEB at the department of Ecological and Biological Engineering of Oregon State University includes electricity generation using Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) and Hydrogen production using Microbial Electrolysis Cells (MECs). At present, the group focuses on reactor design, membrane/cloth selection, electrode development, isolation of exoelectrogens, and system optimization to improve power generation and hydrogen production from various waste biomass.

Microbial fuel cells offer great promise as a method for simultaneous wastewater treatment and renewable energy generation. The Penn State group, led by Dr. Bruce Logan, focuses primarily on MFC architecture and factors that will lead to successful scale up designs. They use both air-cathode and aqueous (dissolved oxygen) cathode systems to better understand factors that limit power generation, and examine how power density can be increased while using low-cost yet effective materials. They also have modified the MFC process and are looking systems that generate hydrogen (instead of electricity) from any biodegradable organic matter.

The home pages:
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ce/enve/mfc-Logan_files/mfc-Logan.htm
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ce/enve/logan.htm
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ce/ENVE/reganj/reganj.htm

The Environmental (Bio)Technology Laboratory operates at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Rome. The research focuses on the development of bioprocesses for the remediation of contaminated subsurface environments and for the treatment and valorization of organic wastes. Research combines concepts and techniques from chemical and biochemical engineering with those from microbiology, electrochemistry, biochemistry, geochemistry, and microbial ecology.

The research at the chair of Sustainable Chemistry and Energy Research (hosted in the Institute of Ecological Chemistry) is dedicated to the development of new concepts and techniques for a sustainable production of biofuels and bioenergy. The group emerged from the MFC group at Greifswald University, which no longer exists.

The homepage:
http://www.oekochemie.tu-bs.de

The research group within the Biosystems Department has many years of experience developing conversion technologies for treating biomass for energy production e.g. bioethanol and biogas including all analyses methods to evaluate such processes.  Pretreatment of lignocellulose (wet oxidation and hydrothermal treatment) and analysis techniques are essential for the Microbial fuel cell project since many compounds like organic acids can be converted in a MFC and not into ethanol. The research group is leaded by Dr. Anne Belinda Thomsen (ABT), who coordinates the project. The research group within the Fuel Cell and Solid State Chemistry Department includes Dr. Finn Willy Poulsen who has a very large expertise in electrochemical measurements and instrumentation by a variety of DC and AC methods. Finn Willy Poulsen (FWP) has many years of experience within the fuel cell technology development.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA) – Environmental Biotechnology Center (go back to top)

Basic microbial fuel cell research at UMASS focuses on studies designed to elucidate the mechanisms for electron transfer between microorganisms and electrodes as well as to understand the physiology and ecology of microorganisms colonizing anodes or cathodes.  This involves genome-scale investigation of gene expression, proteomics, gene manipulation, and in silico modeling as well as biophysical approaches.  Applied research focuses on: development of strains with enhanced capability for electron transfer to anodes; bioremediation of contaminants with electrodes serving as the electron donor or acceptor; electrodes to monitor the activity of subsurface microorganisms; and improving the output of sediment microbial fuel cells.

The home page:
http://www/geobacter.org

This group operates within the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), which is a platform for collaboration created between the Universities of Bristol and of the West of England. The team's primary research interest is in the field of autonomous robots, and how MFCs can be employed as the live onboard power supply to allow an artificial agent to exhibit energetic autonomy and at the same time utilise waste from the environment. The integration of these two technologies (MFC and robotics) has raised a number of important points that affect both technologies and is furthermore investigating the impact that one technology has on the other. To this day the group has managed to develop two such exemplar robots that operate solely on MFC power: EcoBot-I and EcoBot-II. The research team specialises in mixed microbial communities and in the design of ultra-low power electronic modules.

The home page:
http://www.brl.ac.uk

University of Colorado Denver (USA) – Bio-energy for sustainable urban infrastructure (go back to top)

The bioenergy group in University of Colorado Denver is currently a part of the U.S. National Science Foundation IGERT program on sustainable urban infrastructure. Our current MFC research focuses on using molecular tools and electrochemical analyses to understand the fundamental determinant factors of MFC systems so to enhance the design, operation, and monitoring in concert with traditional approaches. We also have interests in optimizing reactor configuration for biomass waste and for small scale biological applications.

The home page:
http://thunder1.cudenver.edu/igert/about.html
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~jren/

The AWMC is a faculty-level research centre within UQ, supported by 6 academics and with over 50 staff and postgraduate students who work on a variety of topics concerning wastewater treatment, resource recovery and environmental biotechnology. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is one of the major research directions of the AWMC. Currently, 5 PhD students and 2 postdoctoral research fellows are working on different aspects of MFCs, grouped on these main topics: (i) elucidating electron, proton and carbon flows in electro-biochemical reactions;
(ii) sulfur conversions in MFC;
(iii) denitrification in the MFC cathode and the link to simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal;
(iv) microbial ecology and biofilm interactions in MFC anodes; and
(v) development of scalable MFC.
The research is supported by the Australian Research Council, Aust.Govt (DEST) International Linkages Scheme (in collaboration with the EU project NEPTUNE) University of Queensland internal funding and several individual scholarships for most PhD students. Key personnel on this project are Jurg Keller and Korneel Rabaey.

The home page:
http://awmc.uq.edu.au

The Laboratoire de Génie Chimique (Laboratory of chemical engineering) in Toulouse (France) belongs to the CNRS and the University of Toulouse. Its department “Bioprocess and microbial systems” gathers complementary skills in molecular biology, biotechnology, electrochemistry and chemical engineering. Around 10 researchers (permanent people, post-doc and PhD students) deal with understanding the electrochemical phenomena that occur at the interfaces between conductive materials and biological systems. Basic advances achieved in the field of microbial corrosion have led to propose very soon the concept of Electrochemically Active biofilms and to develop biofilm engineering to design microbial fuel cells (patent 2002).

The group has coordinated the European research project “Electrochemically active biofilms” (FP6 NEST programme www.ea-biofilms.org) and the European Research Group “Surfaces of materials in living environments, SMILE www.erg-smile.com). He belongs to the CNRS pole “Biofilms” (www.pnir-biofilms.org).

The home page:
http://lgc.inp-toulouse.fr/

US Naval Research Laboratory - Washington, D.C. (USA) – The Ringeisen Group (go back to top)

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) operates as the Navy's full-spectrum corporate laboratory, conducting a broadly based multidisciplinary program of scientific research and advanced technological development directed toward maritime applications of new and improved materials, techniques, equipment, systems and ocean, atmospheric, and space sciences and related technologies.  The Ringeisen Laboratory consists of engineers and physical/inorganic chemists with microbiology experience working on transitioning microbial fuel cells from anaerobic aquatic environments to aerobic water column or terrestrial applications.  We are interested in replacing proton exchange membranes with less selective alternatives (nanoporous membranes) to create novel microbial fuel cell designs, enhancing biofilm formation and electron transfer to three dimensional carbon electrodes for aerobic applications, and working with bacterial species in environments significantly different from their natural habitat.

The Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI) group involves researchers from three disciplines: microbiology, chemistry and electrochemistry, and engineering and modeling. Microbiologists are identifying the genes (and the proteins for which they code) involved with current production as well as working to understand and manipulate these genes to maximize current production. Chemists and electrochemists are developing and characterizing suitable membrane-electrode systems. Engineers and modelers are taking advantage of microbiological and chemical findings and formulating strategies and models to design and optimize MFC performances. The MURI project tackles the problem of low power generation by addressing the fundamental problems.  We are trying to understand the microbial mechanisms whereby electron transport to solid electrode surfaces occurs, interface these microbial catalysts with proper MFC design to optimize power production under widely varying conditions, and manipulate, and improve the microbial communities to obtain those most capable of converting complex and variable organic carbon sources into electrical energy

The home page:
http://mfc-muri.usc.edu/index.htm

The Sub-department Environmental Technology offers an education and research program that is focused on sustainable technological solutions for the worldwide environmental problems. The approach is to combine several disciplines in order to achieve innovations for environmental solutions.

Our research is divided in five groups:
· Inorganic bioconversions
· Bio-energy
· Water technology
· Soil and sediment treatment
· Cleaner production and sustainable material chains

The department has a scientific staff of 8 people, 35 PhD students and is headed by professor Rulkens and Buisman. Each year 30 MSc students finish their thesis at our group.

The home page:
http://www.ete.wur.nl/UK/

The bio-energy page:
http://www.ete.wur.nl/UK/Research/Bio-energy+production/

 

Wetsus, centre for sustainable water technology is a research institute in which renowned universities and industrial partners have joined forces. To face the steadily increasing global water problems, Wetsus focuses upon the development of treatment technologies for sustainable water. The main added value lies in the multidisciplinary use of biotechnology and separation technology. “Energy from water” is one of the five research themes of Wetsus and within this theme microbial fuel technology and biocatalysed electrolysis are investigated. Wetsus currently employs 25 academics.

The home page:
http://www.wetsus.nl/