Microbial Fuel Cell for Wastewater Treatment as Power Plant in Smart Grids: Utopia or Reality?

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have undergone great technological development in the last 20 years, but very little has been done to commercialize them. The simultaneous power production and wastewater treatment are features those greatly increase interest use of MFCs. This kind distributed generation is renewable friendly can be easily integrated into a smart grid. However, there some key issues with their commercialization: high construction costs, difficulty developing structures, MFC lifespan, maintaining level efficiency. objective this article explore possibilities using MFCs urban not only regarding technical criteria application, also mainly from an economic point view, determine conditions through which viability investment ensured integration grid identified. Initially, explores implementation/configuration plant within on theoretical basis. In addition, based corresponding physical quantities for treatment, operational costs determined examined classic such as net present value, benefit–cost ratio, internal rate return, discounted payback period. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis carried out, concerning both parameters, percentage organic matter removal, density, sewage residence time, efficiency, etc., economical reduction due change materials, rate, lifetime. advantages disadvantages grids analyzed. results show that cannot utopian long they structure central condition scale-up successfully addressed.