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 microbial fuel cell (MFC) research at Flemish Institute for
Technological Research (VITO) is carried out in the group “Separation and
Conversion Technology”. The group recently has a strategic focus on sustainable
chemistry aiming for integration of reaction technology (bio, electrochemical)
and separation technologies. The research team excels due to the combined
expertise of material development, microbiology, biotechnology and
electrochemistry. The team members have a lot of experience in industrial
wastewater treatment, bioremediation and alkaline and PEM fuel cell development
and testing. The research focus at VITO in MFCs so far has been development of
low cost and efficient electrodes and membranes. Besides, two stage processes
from fruit and vegetable waste combined with sewage are also being explored
involving MFCs as a second treatment step. Currently work is underway to develop
improved electrodes to be used as air cathodes in MFCs as well as up scaling of
these systems.
Being the expert team in electrode
development, we collaborate with other groups like Prof. Bruce Logan in Penn
State University. For more details please contact Dr Deepak Pant (
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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 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.
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.
One main focus of the laboratory is the electrochemical stimulation, monitoring, and control of a range of environmentally relevant microbial processes, with main reference to:
Use of solid-state electrodes as electron donors in anaerobic respirations (e.g., reductive dechlorination of chlorinated solvents)
Enhancement of extracellular electron transfer reactions by using natural or artificial redox shuttling compounds
Development and characterization of modified electrodes for biotechnological applications and environmental sensing
Hydrogen, methane, and value-added compounds production in bioelectrochemical systems
Key researchers are: Federico Aulenta (
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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 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.
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 Sustainable Environment Research Centre
(SERC) at theUniversity of
Glamorgan, (UK)has a wide range of projects investigating the development
of anaerobic processes for waste remediation and energy generation including
biohydrogen production and bioelectrochemical systems as
well as conventional anaerobic digestion. Other areas of expertise include
environmental analysis, process monitoring and control, advanced oxidation
processes, hydrogen energy systems integration, biosystems modelling and energy
systems analysis. These projects are funded by the UK research councils and the
European Union and are often in collaboration with industry and other
universities. Major projects include the EPSRC funded SUPERGEN Biological Fuel
Cells consortium where the centre is the team leader of microbial systems, as
well as the EPSRC SUPERGEN Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium and a FP6
Marie Curie TOK project (BIOSPEC). The team has 7 fulltime academic staff
members and 14 research associates and PhD students.
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 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:
norganic 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.
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.
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