Technical research progress of controlling reverse solute flux and membrane fouling in osmotic microbial fuel cell

Forward osmosis microbial fuel cell (OsMFC) uses forward osmosis (FO) membrane to replace the proton exchange membrane in traditional microbial fuel cell (MFC), which can be used to treat the feed solution, i. e. anode sewage, and extract high quality water while recovering the bioelectricity. This technology attracts more and more attention. Compared with traditional MFC, OsMFC has been improved in electricity generation performance and effluent quality. However, the introduction of FO membrane makes the problems of reverse solute flux (RSF) and membrane fouling in OsMFC very prominent, which leads to the reduction of water flux of FO membrane, the degradation of OsMFC's electrical and water production performance, and limits the development and application of OsMFC. With the continuous development of materials and biology in recent years, the above problems can be solved by reasonable technical means. To optimize the performance of OsMFC, this paper focuses on the control of RSF and membrane fouling. It mainly included the inhibition of RSF through the selection of membrane materials, the selection of draw solutions and the electricity generation in OsMFC, as well as the control of membrane fouling by studying the formation mechanism of membrane fouling, the technical regulation of membrane fouling, membrane fouling cleaning, the membrane modification and the screening and cultivation of anode microorganisms. Finally, the technical developments for controlling RSF and membrane fouling in OsMFC in the future were prospected.