Fungal-mediated electrochemical system: Prospects, applications and challenges

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that generate bioelectricity from biodegradable waste have received considerable attention from biologists. Fungi play a significant role as both anodic and cathodic catalysts in MFCs. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a fungus with an ability to transfer electrons through mediators such as methylene blue (MB), neutral red (NR) or even without a mediator. This unique role of fungal cells in exocellular electron transfer (EET) and their interactions with electrodes hold a lot of promise in areas such as wastewater treatment where yeast cell-based MFCs can be used. The present article highlights the physico-chemical factors affecting the performance of fungal-mediated MFCs in terms of power output and degradation of organic pollutants, along with the challenges associated with fungal MFCs. In addition, to this comparative assessment of fungal-mediated bio-electrochemical systems, their development, possible applications and potential challenges are also discussed.

Keywords

• Wastewater treatment
• Fungal cells
• Electron mediator
• Microbial fuel cell (MFC)
• Power density
• Biofuel