Further to our recent item on this topic, Dr Maira Anam has kindly made a recorded version of her talk on Impact of fluid flow on microbial community development in pilot-scale MEC, presented at the EBIC EBES Conference 2026. The talk is now available here on EBNet’s YouTube Channel.
She also offered some thoughts on issues related to scale-up, another highly topical area not only for Bioelectrochemical Systems but across all aspects of microbial biotechnology. Dr Anam said: “I would like to share my general perspective on the topic.
I believe the microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) has significant potential for sustainable resource recovery and energy-efficient wastewater treatment. However, we need to take a realistic approach to scale-up.
Moving from a highly controlled laboratory system to a pilot-scale deployment fundamentally introduces a different set of challenges. Real wastewater environments are complex and variable, and practical issues from unexpected fungal biofouling, maggot infestation, mushroom growth and other operational challenges cannot simply be overlooked. These realities need to be recognised as part of the scale-up process.
We also need to be careful when comparing pilot systems operating under real-world conditions with small laboratory experiments where temperature, pH, substrate composition and other parameters can be strictly controlled. Applying laboratory scale expectations to pilot systems can set up unrealistic performance targets which we will always struggle to achieve.
The important point is that MECs are progressing beyond the laboratory. They are now being tested at pilot scale and have already demonstrated commercial deployment in UK. The research focus should therefore be on understanding and overcoming the challenges that emerge under realistic operating conditions, while continuing to improve performance, reliability and scalability”.
Our thanks to Dr Anam for her time and effort sharing these materials. For more, see also her EBNet YouTube Short.
