Algal green energy has emerged as an alternative to conventional energy production using fossil fuels. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs), photosynthetic microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) and biophotovoltaic (BPV) platforms have been developed to utilize microalgae for bioelectricity generation, wastewater treatment and biomass production. There remains a lack of research on marine microalgae in these systems, so to the best of our knowledge, all information on their integration in these systems have been gathered in this review, and are used to compare with the interesting studies on freshwater microalgae. The performance of the systems is extremely reliant on the microalgae species and/or microbial community used, the size of the bio-electrochemical cell, and electrode material and distance used. The mean was calculated for each system, PMFC has the highest average maximum power density of 344 mW/m2, followed by MFC (179 mW/m2) and BPV (58.9 mW/m2). In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of each system are highlighted. Although all three systems face the issue of low power outputs, the integration of a suitable energy harvester could potentially increase power efficiency and make them applicable for lower power applications.
Keywords: Algal biotechnology; Bioelectricity; Biophotovoltaic platform; Microbial fuel cells; Renewable energy.
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