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  • Essay / Energy crisis and environmental pollution - 1476

    Energy crisis and environmental pollution are considered one of the major global problems of the 21st century. Over the past 200 years, human society has had a voracious appetite for fossil fuels. The enormous increase in human population as well as the industrial revolution have been the main sources of fossil fuel consumption. However, it is becoming clear that our dependence on fossil fuels poses many problems that we will need to address. Our biggest challenge, then, is finding ways to reduce the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Fortunately, we have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels by converting them to renewable, carbon-neutral energy sources that provide the energy services now obtained from fossil fuels (1–3). In this context, recent technology using Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) has been introduced to directly produce electrical current from waste streams based on the ability of particular bacteria to biocatalyze an oxidation and/or decomposition reaction. reduction at an anodic and cathodic electrode, respectively (4-6) (Figure 1). The essence of this technology is the use of a unique type of bacteria, anodic respiratory bacteria (ARB), which can typically breathe electrons from organic compounds to the anode surface and simultaneously protons (H+) release into the electrolyte, leading to a negative anode. potential. ARBs are known to use only a small number of simple organic electron donors, such as acetate and H2 (7–9). Biodegradation of complex organic substrates in the anode of MFCs, such as those present in domestic wastewater, food processing wastewater, and landfill leachates, must occur through a cascade of reactions under strict anaerobic conditions, resulting ...... middle of article ...... on the pathways/kinetics of soluble carbohydrates and proteins when used as a single or mixed electron donor i.e. 100% of carbohydrates, 100% protein, 50%: 50% carbohydrates: protein, 75%: 25% carbohydrates: protein and 25%: 75% carbohydrates: protein. In order to achieve the goal, I will use different advanced analysis tools, such as (i) microbial ecology tools (such as pyrosequencing, quantitative polymerase chain reaction and clone library), ( ii) electrochemical analysis tools (such as cyclic voltammetry, linear scanning voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronoamperometry) and (iii) chemical analysis tools (such as high performance liquid chromatography, gas phase, ion chromatography and chemical oxygen demand measurements) to also predict the fermentation pathways of organic waste such as the study of hydrolysis and fermentation kinetics