The energy crisis and environmental pollution are considered one of the major global problems of the 21st century. For the past 200 years, human society has had a voracious appetite for fossil fuels. The huge increase in human population and also the industrial revolution have been the main sources of fossil fuel consumption. However, it is becoming obvious that our dependence on fossil fuels is causing many problems that we will have to deal with. Therefore, our greatest challenge is to find means to reduce the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Fortunately, we have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels by converting them to renewable, zero-carbon energy sources that provide the energy services now obtained from fossil fuels (1–3). In this context, a recent technology using the microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been introduced to directly produce electrical current from waste streams based on the ability of particular bacteria to biocatalyze an oxidation and/or reduction reaction respectively on an electrode anodic and cathodic (4–6) ( Figure 1). The essence of this technology is the use of a unique type of bacteria, anode-respiring bacteria (ARB), which typically can breathe electrons from organic compounds at the anode surface and simultaneously release protons (H+) into the 'electrolyte, lead to a negative anode potential. ARBs are known to utilize only a limited number of simple organic electron donors, such as acetate and H2 (7–9). Biodegradation of complex organic substrates in the anode of MFCs, such as those found in domestic wastewater, food processing wastewater, and landfill leachate, must occur through a cascade of reactions under rigorous anaerobic conditions, resulting in... . document ......on the pathway/kinetics of soluble carbohydrates and proteins when used as the sole electron donor or in a mixture, i.e. 100% carbohydrates, 100% proteins, 50%:50% carbohydrates:proteins, 75 %:25% carbohydrates:protein and 25%:75% carbohydrates:protein. To achieve the goal, I will use several advanced analytical tools, such as (i) microbial ecology tools (such as pyrosequencing, quantitative polymerase chain reaction and clone library), (ii) electrochemical analysis tools (such as cyclic voltammetry, linear scanning, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronoamperometry) and (iii) chemical analysis tools (such as high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, ion chromatography and chemical oxygen demand measurements) to also predict organic waste fermentation pathways such as study of the kinetics of hydrolysis and fermentation