MFC from research to application: Standards needs

Microbial fuel cell is a relatively young technology that in the last few years received increasing interest. Today a validation of MFC technology is requested if we like to attract funds for MFC transaction from research to application. Consequently, in front of its peculiarities, this technology must be compared with more old and well know fuel cell technologies, and other energy technologies. But looking at the existing literature few efforts have been made to define comparison criteria, or to develop a standard allowing the comparison of results obtained in different laboratories. In this work an analysis of issues and possible solution for this comparison is made. A proposal for a standard approach to MFC characterization is done.