Bioelectrochemical Systems: Principles and Applications

Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are emerging environmental biotechnologies that involve microbial interfacial electron transfer and electrochemical transformations for achieving sustainable energy and carbon neutrality. BESs provide an excellent strategy for the processes based on microbial metabolic oxidation and reduction in comparison to conventional chemical and environmental processes. Thus, a plethora of applications including electricity production via oxidation of the waste biodegradable substrates in the anode compartment and the use of this electricity (along with additional required energy) for production of chemicals and energy carriers (such as H2) in the cathode compartment has sparked a great interest in BESs. In this chapter, a brief introduction to BESs is provided along with reviews about microbial, technological, and thermodynamic fundamentals of the BES technology, and different applications and the latest progress in the field of BESs are briefly discussed.