Microbial desalination cells; desalination, wastewater treatment, and resource recovery

There are mainly three approaches to attain freshwater, groundwater resources, wastewater reclamation, and desalination. As groundwater resources are limited, two other alternatives are getting more and more attention. On the other hand, conventional methods to treat wastewater and desalinate seawater are cost and energy-intensive as used for aeration, pumping, pressure rising, and other purposes. As reported by EPA 2010 4% of the power generated in the US is consumed in wastewater treatment plants. So many methods are being introduced to replace these two and some try to modify them to a more sustainable procedure like nature-based wastewater treatment methods which try to reduce environmental impacts and establish a path to resource recovery. Bio-electrochemical methods are well known as resource recovery methods and one of the most common methods is the microbial fuel cell. Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) are modified version and multi-purpose technology which does desalination, wastewater treatment, and power generation. So, consuming no external energy is a step towards sustainability. In this article, MDCs are introduced and some common types are listed. Then a brief comparison of their advantages and disadvantages is explained. Finally, the result of some researcher’s studies is presented to compare different MDCs configurations’ performance. Results show that MCD is a promising method in desalination and COD removal although it may not generate much power. If not using MCD as an individual unit, it can be used as pre-treatment of RO.

Microbial desalination cells; desalination, wastewater treatment, and resource recovery Keywords:

microbial desalination cell , desalination , wastewater treatment , Resource recovery