Advanced Technologies for Wastewater Treatment

Presently, wastewater treatment is a growing and essential topic in water purification. Many factors, such as increasing population, industrialization, urbanization, etc., are majorly responsible for the discharge of different pollutants into the water resources. Previously, many traditional wastewater treatment techniques, such as ion exchange, thermal treatment adsorption, coagulation, electrochemical degradation, and chemical precipitation, were introduced. The mentioned techniques have some drawbacks, such as high-energy demand, production of by-products, toxic effects, cost issues, etc., which make them inefficient for cleaning water. A few important and effective approaches are summarized in this chapter by discussing comprehensive literature based on the wastewater treatment process. Among the abovementioned techniques, the microbial fuel cell (MFC) is considered an effective and effective approach to treating wastewater and has recently attracted researchers and academicians from all over the world. MFCs are a bioelectrochemical approach in which bacterial species serve as biocatalysts for the oxidation of organic matters and reduce the heavy metal content, which leads to the generation of electricity and concurrently cleaning of the wastewater. In this chapter, the role of MFCs in the field of wastewater treatment is briefly summarized. Finally, the concluding remarks of the literature survey and future recommendations are discussed.