1. Introduction
Microorganisms like bacteria can be used for converting complex
organic matter to simple organic and inorganic species such
as carbon dioxide, electron and proton. This principle has been
used to disinfect organic waste present in water while also generating
electrical energy in a fuel cell (Rabaey and Verstraete, 2005;
Wang et al., 2013). Fuel cells of this kind, known as microbial fuel
cell (MFC), essentially consists of two separate chambers, anode
and cathode, for the fuel and the oxidant respectively, separated
by a proton exchange membrane (PEM). In a continuo us operation,
the microorganisms mixed with the organic material are pumped
into the anode chamber where they oxidize the substrate releasing
electrons and protons. The electrons get collected at the anode and
are transported to the cathode by the external circuit while the
protons are transferred through the PEM to the cathode chamber
where it accepts the electrons and reacts with the oxygen to produce
water (Lovley, 2006)