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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Microbial technologies: Toward a regenerative architecture

Figure 1. Environmentally regenerative “living cities” are enabled by microbial technologies that perform building operations based on an ecosystem of
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microbial fuel cell-based technologies—PeePower , Living Architecture, and Active Living Infrastructure: Controlled Environment, providing a range of
ecosystem services and energy for low powered electronic devices that can be housed in biodegradable microbially-produced biomaterials. Source: Figure
courtesy of Rachel Armstrong, 2023.
— much like soil biofilms in natural ecosystems. MFCs
also act as biosensors by generating voltage, which linearly
correlates with specific quantities of toxins like heavy metals
(copper, chromium, and zinc), and organic compounds
(p-nitrophenol [PNP], formaldehyde, levofloxacin) (Zhou
et al., 2017). In this sense, MFCs are completely unlike
batteries or other types of modern utilities, which are
designed to process one type of resource at a time and
are, therefore, well placed as a technological platform for
meeting the SDGs. Providing a foundational platform that
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can change the impacts of human settlement across a range
of parameters, MFCs catalyze the transformation of a range
of organic wastes (e.g., urine, greywater, and blackwater
which are feedstock for microbes) into bioelectricity
while simultaneously providing environmental services
(bioremediation, detoxification, and water purification)
generating an overall net-positive impact on ecosystem Figure 2. Technical diagram showing electrons produced from an
health. anaerobic biofilm that are captured by electrodes to produce electricity
while performing ecosystem services (bioremediation of wastewater).
6. State-of-the-art Source: Courtesy of Rachel Armstrong, 2019.
MFCs are not the only microbial technological platform
to process waste into a range of new resources. Anaerobic reduces pathogens. MFCs, however, have some advantages
digestion in biodigesters also produces fuel (biogas) over biodigesters as they produce electricity without
removes biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) from sewage, combustion, act as sensors, and can be used for the
conserves nutrients (especially nitrogen compounds), and treatment of low concentration substrates at temperatures
below 20°C, where anaerobic digestion generally fails to
function. This creates specific application niches for MFCs
4 MFCs contribute to the following SDGs: 6 via clean water that do not compete with, but complement, anaerobic
and sanitation; 7 providing affordable and clean energy; 11 by digestion technology. MFCs still face important limitations
creating a platform for sustainable cities and communities; 4
enabling quality education via bioremediating digital services; in terms of large-scale application including investment
17 in creating partnerships for the goals by strengthening costs, upscale technical issues, and the factors limiting
the means of implementation and revitalizing the global the performance, both in terms of anodic and cathodic
partnership for sustainable development Technology. electron transfer (Pham et al., 2006). To date, MFCs have

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.157