Dibyojyoty Nath, Ioannis Andrea Ieropoulos
Our project partners Dibyojyoty Nath and Ioannis Andrea Ieropoulos from the University of Southampton recently published a paper on how microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can produce electricity and liquid fertiliser directly from raw sewage. By stacking 40 ceramic MFCs into two plastic trays, the researchers processed raw sewage and synthetic urine to generate a dual output. Each MFC unit produced up to 1.02 mW of power and 1.2L of catholyte every 48 hours from 2.5L of feedstock. This catholyte was observed to have antimicrobial properties and is composed of essential nutrients (NO3−, PO4−2, and K+).
Fig. 1. Operation of MFC Trays. Raw sewage is fed to MFC tray-1 through gravity, followed by tray-2. The outlet from tray-2 is recycled through the peristaltic pump. (Nath et al., 2025)
Highlights:
- Smaller-sized MFCs are more effective at producing electricity and catholyte.
- The recovered catholyte is rich in Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potassium (NO3−, PO4−2, and K+) and has antimicrobial properties.
- The system yields 1.2L of catholyte per 48 hours from 2.5L of sewage.
Fig. 5. Catholyte from MFC trays. (a) Catholyte recovered from raw sewage-fed MFC (MFC tray-2); (b) Catholyte recovered from synthetic urine-fed MFC (MFC tray-2). (Nath et al., 2025)
Nath, Dibyojyoty, and Ioannis Andrea Ieropoulos. “Electricity and fertiliser production using microbial fuel cell stacks for possible integration with hydroponics.” Journal of Power Sources 652 (2025): 237546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2025.237546
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