Bio-electricity can be produced from biomass in a variety of ways. Some time microbes are capable to creat electricity while reducing or remediating organic wastes, and that these processes can be exploited using devices called Microbial Fuel Cells.

They also known as biological fuel cells, use bacteria to convert biodegradable materials such as wastewater pollutants into electricity. As the bacteria consume the pollutants, they shed electrons, which flow through a circuit and generate electricity. In the process, pollutants are broken down, resulting in clean water.

Microbial Fuel Cells have many potential advantages over traditional methods of generating electricity, and have been investigated in the past, including by NASA in the 1960s for application to power generation in space. However, these studies were limited by the kind of microbes identified and the state of knowledge of basic biological processes.

Recent advances have changed this picture, and enabled the development of microbial fuel cells for commercial applications. The most important advance has been the discovery of microbes that are far more efficient at creating electricity from organic matter than previous candidate organisms. Further, advances in biotechnology have enabled the optimization of these electricity-producing organisms for various applications.

The unique characteristics of microbial fuel cells will find use in diverse terrestrial applications, such as powering sensor networks in extreme environments, or reducing the cost of waste remediation.

MFCs; Marine sediment fuel cell apparatus and remote control car powered by this marine geobatteries

For example, dissimilatory metal-reducing microorganisms such as Geobacter and Rhodoferax species, have the novel ability to directly transfer electrons to the surface of electrodes. They produce microbial fuel cells that are superior to previously described microbial fuel cells in that,

• they are much more efficient;
• they do not require the addition of the toxic electron shuttling mediator compounds employed in previously described microbial fuel cells;
• they have remarkable long-term stability; and
• it is possible to harvest electricity from many types of waste organic matter or renewable biomass.

Immediate application of these microbial fuel cells will be for powering electronic monitoring devices in remote locations, such as the bottom of the ocean. However, many other applications are possible.

The mechanisms of electron transfer between the microorganisms and the electrode in order to design better electrodes or genetically engineer better microbes for higher rates of electricity production.