Advancements in the development of membranes employed in microbial electrochemical technologies

Energy generation by the use of microbes is being widely studied for meeting the demands of ever-growing global energy consumption. In this veneration, microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) are one such technology, which is used to produce energy simultaneously along with wastewater treatment through the microbial degradation of organic matter. Further, the membranes employed in different types of METs play a crucial role in their operation and efficacy, and also their economic feasibility critically affects the scalability of METs. Therefore, the present review, elucidates the different types of membranes used in both lab-scale and field-scale METs, the performance of the METs in terms of wastewater treatment, coulombic efficiency and energy production with different membranes. Further, recent development in the field of membranes and their application in various types of METs and status quo are included along with proposing the future directions in membrane-based research.