Constructed wetlands and microbial fuel cells as individual and combined systems for wastewater treatment: a review

Abstract

The population increases and the technological development has caused a great energy demand, which has given way to several research groups venturing into the search for solutions in the short and medium term. The use of technologies to treat contaminated water and the generation of electrical energy simultaneously emerge as viable alternatives to solve the problem. This work reviews the mechanism for the treatment of wastewater and the generation of electrical energy simultaneously through combined systems of wetlands coupled to microbial fuel cells (CW-MFC). The objective of this review is to describe the components and operation of the individual CW and MFC systems, as well as the CW-MFC system, which have been used in recent research. The main studies were explored, studies related to the material that electrodes are built, which generate more energy efficiency and filtering materials that benefit the wastewater treatment. In addition, the challenges in this field of research are presented. The CW and the MFC are systems that, combined, improve the efficiency in the wastewater treatment and at the same time they allow to take advantage of the electrical energy that the microorganisms generate during the oxidation process of the organic matter.