Models for microbial fuel cells: a critical review

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been widely viewed as one of the most promising alternative renewable energy source. MFCs have attracted a large amount of interest in the past decade and much scientific effort has been dedicated to making this technology more efficient. MFCs are complex bioelectrochemical system that generates electrical energy by the catalytic reaction of organic substrates. The study of MFCs requires an interdisciplinary approach. Experimental method is time‐consuming and uneconomical. Modelling of MFCs is an effective way not only for thorough understanding the effects of operation conditions on the power generation performance, but also for the successful implementation of MFCs. The state of the art of MFCs modelling is present in this article. Models and modelling methods are elaborated based on the classification of mechanism‐based models and application‐based models. Furthermore, mechanism, advantages, drawbacks, and application fields of different models are illustrated.