Chenglong Xu, Jialei Lu, Zhimiao Zhao et al.

SN Applied Sciences • 2020

Beenish Saba, Ann D. Christy, Zhongtang Yu et al.

Environmental Engineering Science • 2017

Power generation and desalination performance of microbial desalination cells (MDCs) were compared using two different catholytes; (1) Nannochloropsis salina, a marine algae and (2) potassium ferricyanide. Three chambered MDCs were constructed. Desalination efficiencies were 45%, 79%, and 46% when the algae was used as catholyte and 46%, 73%, and 16% when KFe(CN)6 was used as the catholyte at (35, 17.5, and 8.25 g/L of NaCl) respective salt concentrations. Chemical oxygen demand removal of anolyte substrate was 85% with algae as the catholyte and 83% with KFe(CN)6 as the catholyte, after 24 h of operation. MDC with the marine algae catholyte produced 384 ± 5 mW/m3 during the first hour of operation while the MDC with KFe(CN)6 catholyte generated 1,532 ± 14 mW/m3. Denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis of partial 16S rRNA genes showed clear differences between desalinating and nondesalinating microbial communities. Microbial community analysis reveals the shape and type of bacteria. Cyclic voltammetry showed reduction peaks for algae −250 mV at a reduction current of −6 mA and for potassium ferricyanide −50 mV and −250 mA. Results successfully demonstrated that the marine algae-assisted biocatholyte can be used for efficient desalination in MDCs, but generates low power compared to the chemical catholyte.

Zhigang Yang, Yunfei Li, Ziyi Zhan et al.

The Science of The Total Environment • 2022

Atiyeh Ebrahimi, Ghasem Najafpour, Daryoush Yousefi Kebria

SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología • 2016

Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) have great potential as a cost-effective and green technology for simultaneous water desalination, organic matter removal and energy production. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of a MDC under batch and continuous feeding conditions. Hence, power and current output, coulombic efficiency, electron harvest rate, desalination rate and COD removal were calculated during the operation. According to the obtained results, the MDC performance exhibited some changes when the reactor switched from batch to continuous mode. The continuously operated MDC indicated a maximum power density of 15.9 W.m-3 and an average salt removal rate of 80%. In comparison, the batch MDC demonstrated the maximum power density and average salt removal rate of 13.9 W.m-3 and 68.1%, respectively. In addition, 83.7% of COD was removed in the continuously fed MDC at a hydraulic retention time of two days, which was 13.8% more than amount of COD removed in MDC under a two days batch process. The obtained results revealed that enrichment of anolyte under controlled continuous feeding conditions would relatively improve the MDC performance.

Francisco Lopez Moruno, Juan E. Rubio, Carlo Santoro et al.

Solid State Ionics • 2017

Quaternary ammonium poly(2,6-dimethyl 1,4-phenylene oxide) (QAPPO) anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with topographically patterned surfaces were assessed in a microbial desalination cell (MDC) system. The MDC results with these QAPPO AEMs were benchmarked against a commercially available AEM. The MDC with the non-patterned QAPPO AEM (Q1) displayed the best desalination rate (a reduction of salinity by 53 ± 2.7%) and power generation (189 ± 5 mW m - 2 ) when compared against the commercially available AEM and the patterned AEMs. The enhanced performance with the Q1 AEM was attributed to its higher ionic conductivity and smaller thickness leading to a reduced area specific resistance. It is important to note that Real Pacific Ocean seawater and activated sludge were used into the desalination chamber and anode chamber respectively for the MDC - which mimicked realistic conditions. Although the non-patterned QAPPO AEM displayed better performance over the patterned QAPPO AEMs, it was observed that the anodic overpotential was smaller when the MDCs featured QAPPO AEMs with larger lateral feature sizes. The results from this study have important implications for the continuous improvements necessary for developing cheaper and better performing membranes in order to optimize the MDC.

Fubin Liu, Lisheng Wang, Kuichang Zuo et al.

Bioelectrochemistry • 2018

Zaid Abubakari, Michael Baah Mensah, R. Buamah et al.

International Journal of Energy and Water Resources • 2019

Nan Zhao, Han Wang, Zhen He et al.

Environmental Science Water Research & Technology • 2018

To find an alternative way of draw solute regeneration that is critically important to forward osmosis (FO), a tubular microbial desalination cells (MDCs) is employed to remove and recovery ammonia nitrogen from a mimicked FO draw solution.

Yaobin Lu, Ibrahim M. Abu-Reesh, Zhen He

Environmental Science and Pollution Research • 2016

Sandhya Prakash, P. Kalaichelvi, Samsudeen Naina Mohamed

International Journal of Energy Research • 2022

Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC) is an emerging sustainable technology that offers the significant advantage of simultaneous electricity generation, water desalination, and pollutants removal such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solids (TDS), color, etc. from industrial or domestic wastewater. The current MDC technology primarily utilizes conventional (chemical) cathode for maximum power output and desalination efficiency, which is unsustainable and toxic to the environment. Utilization of biocathode in MDC is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable due to reduced operation cost, eco-friendliness, stability for long-run over chemical electrodes, and efficient pollutant removal from wastewater, which in turn creates a pollution-free environment for the society. In biocathode MDC, bacteria, yeast, fungi, or algae acts as a catalyst for reduction reaction by forming biofilm at the cathode, which avoids the use of expensive metal catalysts and eliminates the toxicity produced by the chemical cathodes. Microalgae as a biocathode has the ability to provide four times the dissolved oxygen concentration by photosynthesis than that obtained by pumping external air. Hence, power output is increased on using microalgae, and meanwhile, energy consumption is zero. Although there are exceptional benefits, biocathode is underutilized since research contribution towards the use of diverse microorganisms as biocathode is yet to be improved. This review gives an intelligible picture on the importance of biocathode over other cathodes, microbial community and materials used, other applications, and downside of biocathode in MDC.

Chahinez Yahiaoui, Mostéfa Kameche, Christophe Innocent et al.

Chemical Engineering Communications • 2020

Commercial textiles such as Decolor Stop (Eau Écarlate, France) were characterized, and their ability for adsorbing the dyes Congo red and methylene blue in an aqueous solution was investigated. The adsorption steps of equilibrium time and velocity for both dyes in textile commercial were determined. To describe adsorption mechanisms of Congo red and methylene blue, the kinetic adsorption data were treated with pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order. The experimental data of isotherms adsorption were examined using the Langmuir and Freundlich models, showing more affinity of material toward Congo red. Besides, an attempt toward biological regeneration of polluted textile was undertaken by integrating a bacterial biofilm into the process. In effect, the polluted textile was therefore regenerated by yeast microbial fuel cell in which it was consumed and used as a mediator for oxidizing the organic matter available. As a result, the produced electrons were transferred from the substrate (organic matter) to the anode via the dye, giving rise to the value of generated electromotive force. Then, the bio-energy harvested from this microbial fuel cell was exploited for removal of traces of lead contained in diluted aqueous solution. Accordingly, two processes were used: microbial desalination cell and conventional electro-dialysis for comparison. Although the desalination rates of the two processes were relatively close to each other, the electro-dialysis required some energy to spend for imposing the current, while in microbial desalination cell, the biological system provided the energy for removing traces of lead.

Abdolmajid Gholizadeh, Mohammad Hossein Salmani, Ali Asghar Ebrahimi et al.

Environmental Chemistry Letters • 2018

Abdelsalam Elawwad, Mostafa Ragab, Ahmed Hamdy et al.

Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination • 2020

Abstract In this work, δMnO2 was anchored into graphene nanosheets via a mediated simple and eco-friendly approach to be used as a potential low-cost cathodic catalyst in microbial desalination cells (MDC). MnO2/G based MDC revealed a faster start-up and stable performance during the operation compared with the catalyst-free control MDC. The average chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies were 85.11 ± 5.13 and 86.20 ± 4.85% and average columbic efficiencies throughout the operation cycles were 1.52 ± 0.32% and 0.70 ± 0.35% for MnO2/G based reactor and control reactor, respectively. The average desalination efficiencies were 15.67 ± 3.32 and 13.21 ± 2.61% for MnO2/G based reactor and control reactor, respectively. The superior catalytic performance of MnO2/G based cathode improved current generation which is the key desalination stimulus. MnO2/G based reactor revealed a lower internal resistance of 430 Ω compared with 485 Ω for the catalyst-free control reactor and, similarly, the maximum power densities were found to be 12.5 and 6.5 mW/m2, respectively. MnO2/G catalyst offered an improved MDC performance, however, still with uncompetitive performance in comparison with platinum group metals catalysts.

Omkar Shinde, Ankita Bansal, Angela Banerjee et al.

Water Science & Technology • 2018

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a propitious technology towards water desalination by utilizing wastewater as an energy source. In this study, a multi-chambered MDC was used to bioremediate steel plant wastewater using the same wastewater as a fuel for anodic bacteria. A pure culture of Pseudomonas putida MTCC 1194 was isolated and inoculated to remove toxic phenol. Three different inoculum conditions, namely P. putida (INC-A), a mixture of P. putida and activated sludge (INC-B), and activated sludge alone (INC-C) were employed in an anodic chamber to mainly compare the electricity generation and phenol degradation in MDCs. The study revealed the maximum phenol removal of 82 ± 2.4%, total dissolved solids (TDS) removal of 68 ± 1.5%, and power generation of 10.2 mW/m 2 using INC-B. The synergistic interactions between microorganisms, can enhance the toxic phenol degradation and also electricity generation in MDC for onsite wastewater application.

Fanyu Meng, Qingliang Zhao, Zhen Zheng et al.

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2018

V.R.V. Ashwaniy, Muthiah Perumalsamy

Journal of environmental chemical engineering • 2017

Kuichang Zuo, Fubin Liu, Shiting Ren et al.

Environmental Science Water Research & Technology • 2016

A multistage microbial desalination cell fabricated by combining electrodialysis with an alternating anaerobic/oxic process realized simultaneous desalination and enhanced organics/nitrogen removal from domestic wastewater.

Fubin Liu, Hanan Moustafa, Mohamed Salah El-Din Hassouna et al.

Environment International • 2020

Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) have been studied as an emerging technology to accomplish simultaneous wastewater treatment and saline water desalination. A good amount of effort has been invested to understand fundamental problems and develop functional systems of the MDC technology. However, a revisit of MDCs' desalination function reveals that the unique requirements like co-location of wastewater and saline water will greatly limit the application of this technology. In addition, the relatively low desalination rate of MDCs will result in a large reactor size and thus higher capital cost. Because of the need for wastewater (as a substrate for electricity generation), the MDC technology may have a promising niche of application for resource recovery from wastewater. A proper design of MDCs will allow the current-driven separation of ammonia, phosphorus, and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from wastewater for further recovery. Based on the literature data, we conduct a case study analysis of mass flow for MDC-based resource recovery and demonstrate the potential of this function. Resource recovery can be a new function of interest to MDCs and worth further exploration of its technical and economic feasibility.

Kuichang Zuo, Jiali Chang, Fubin Liu et al.

Desalination • 2017

G. Anusha, Md Tabish Noori, Makarand M. Ghangrekar

Materials Science for Energy Technologies • 2018

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a novel bioelectrochemical system, capable of removing salts and organic matter from wastewater simultaneously. For improving the performance, a carbon supported silver-tin dioxide (Ag-SnO2) composite was synthesized and used as cathode catalyst in a five-chambered MDC (MDC-1). The results were compared with MDC-2 having no catalyst on the cathode. Saline water with a NaCl concentration of 20 g/L was used to evaluate the desalination efficiency of both the MDCs. The electrochemical studies such as cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry of the cathode of MDC-1 revealed the superior reduction kinetics. Increased desalination efficiency was observed in MDC-1 (72.6 ± 3.0%) due to presence of Ag-SnO2 catalyst as compared to MDC-2 (57.9 ± 8.6%). Maximum power density of 1.47 W/m3, demonstrated by MDC-1, was noted to be 1.67 times higher than that of MDC-2 (0.88 W/m3). In addition, the coulombic efficiency of MDC-1 was observed to be 14.4 ± 0.2%, which was significantly higher than that observed in MDC-2 (9.5 ± 0.3%). Performance results confirmed the excellent catalytic activity of Ag-SnO2 composite catalyst to be used on the cathode of MDCs, to take forward this cutting-edge technology for field scale application.

Abdolmajid Gholizadeh, Ali Asghar Ebrahimi, Mohammad Hossein Salmani et al.

Chemosphere • 2017

Kuichang Zuo, Zhen Wang, Xi Chen et al.

Environmental Science & Technology • 2016

Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) extract organic energy from wastewater for in situ desalination of saline water. However, to desalinate salt water, traditional MDCs often require an anolyte (wastewater) and a catholyte (other synthetic water) to produce electricity. Correspondingly, the traditional MDCs also produced anode effluent and cathode effluent, and may produce a concentrate solution, resulting in a low production of diluate. In this study, nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube membranes and Pt carbon cloths were utilized as filtration material and cathode to fabricate a modularized filtration air cathode MDC (F-MDC). With real wastewater flowing from anode to cathode, and finally to the middle membrane stack, the diluate volume production reached 82.4%, with the removal efficiency of salinity and chemical oxygen demand (COD) reached 93.6% and 97.3% respectively. The final diluate conductivity was 68 ± 12 μS/cm, and the turbidity was 0.41 NTU, which were sufficient for boiler supplementary or industrial cooling. The concentrate production was only 17.6%, and almost all the phosphorus and salt, and most of the nitrogen were recovered, potentially allowing the recovery of nutrients and other chemicals. These results show the potential utility of the modularized F-MDC in the application of municipal wastewater advanced treatment and self-driven desalination.

Kuichang Zuo, Man Chen, Fubin Liu et al.

Journal of Membrane Science • 2017

Atieh Ebrahimi, Daryoush Yousefi Kebria, Ghasem Najafpour

Environmental Technology • 2017

Improving wastewater treatment process and water desalination are two important solutions for increasing the available supply of fresh water. Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) with common electrolytes display relatively low organic matter removal and high cost. In this study, sewage sludge was used as the substrate in the Microbial desalination cell (MDC) under three different initial salt concentrations (5, 20 and 35 g.L -1 ) and the maximum salt removal rates of 50.6%, 64% and 69.6% were obtained under batch condition, respectively. The MDC also produced the maximum power density of 47.1 W m -3 and the averaged chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 58.2 ± 0.89% when the initial COD was 6610 ± 83 mg L -1 . Employing treated sludge as catholyte enhanced COD removal and power density to 87.3% and 54.4 W m -3 , respectively, with counterbalancing pH variation in treated effluent. These promising results showed, for the first time, that the excess sewage sludge obtained from biological wastewater treatment plants could be successfully used as anolyte and catholyte in MDC, achieving organic matter biodegradation along with salt removal and energy production. In addition, using treated sludge as catholyte will improve the performance of MDC and introduce a more effective method for both sludge treatment and desalination.

Marina Ramírez-Moreno, Abraham Esteve‐Núñez, Juan Manuel Ortiz

Electrochimica Acta • 2021

Atieh Ebrahimi, Daryoush Yousefi Kebria, Ghasem Najafpour

Chemical Engineering Journal • 2018

Mostafa Ragab, Abdelsalam Elawwad, Hisham Abdel‐Halim

Renewable Energy • 2019

Mohammad Malakootian, Hakimeh Mahdizadeh, Alireza Nasiri et al.

Desalination • 2018

Sadik Rahman, Abdullah Al-Mamun, Tahereh Jafary et al.

Water Science & Technology • 2021

The green and cost-effective nature of the microbial desalination cell (MDC) make it a promising alternative for future sustainable desalination. However, MDC suffers from a low desalination rate that inhibits it being commercialized. External resistance (R ext ) is one of the factors that significantly affect the desalination rate in MDCs, which is still under debate. This research, for the first time, investigated the impact of R ext on MDCs with different internal resistance (R int ) of the system to discover the optimal range of R ext for efficient MDC performance. The results showed that the effect of R ext on desalination rate (2.52 mg/h) was quite low when the R int of MDC was high (200 Ω). However, operating the MDC with a low R int (67 Ω) significantly improved the desalination rate (9.85 mg/h) and current generation. When MDC was operated with a low R int the effect of variable R ext on desalination and current generation was noticeable. Therefore, low R int (67 Ω) MDC was used to select the optimum R ext when the optimal range was found to be R ext ≪ R int , R ext < R int , R ext ≈ R int (ranging from 1-69 Ω) to achieve the highest desalination rates (10.41-8.59 mg/h). The results showed the superior effect of R int on desalination rate before selecting the optimal range of R ext in the outer circuit.

Yi Wang, Anlin Xu, Tao Cui et al.

Chemosphere • 2020

Syeed Md Iskander, John T. Novak, Zhen He

Bioresource Technology • 2018

Carlo Santoro, Morteza Rezaei Talarposhti, Mounika Kodali et al.

ChemElectroChem • 2017

Abstract An iron‐nitrogen‐carbon‐based catalyst was used at the cathode of a microbial desalination cell (MDC) and compared with platinum (Pt) and an activated carbon (AC) cathode. The Fe‐N−C catalyst was prepared by using nicarbazin (NCB) as the organic precursor through a sacrificial support method (SSM). Rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) experiments show that Fe‐NCB had a higher electrocatalytic activity compared to AC and Pt. The utilization of Fe‐NCB in the cathode substantially improved the performance output with an initial maximum power density of 49±2 μW cm −2 in contrast to Pt and AC catalysts, which show lower values of 34±1 and 23.5±1.5 μW cm −2 , respectively. After four cycles, Fe‐NCB catalyst lost 15 % of its initial performance, but still was 1.3 and 1.8 times more active than Pt and AC, respectively. Solution conductivity inside the desalination chamber (DC) decreased by 46–55 % with every cycle. The pH of the cathodic chamber and the DC increased to 10–11, owing to the production of OH − during the oxygen reduction reaction and the migration of OH − into the DC. Chemical organic demand decreased by 73–83 % during each cycle. It was shown that Fe‐NCB and Pt had a similar coulombic efficiency (CE) of 39±7 % and 38±2 %, whereas AC had lower CE (24±5 %).

Chih-Yu Ma, Chia‐Hung Hou

The Science of The Total Environment • 2019

Halima Alhimali, Tahereh Jafary, Abdullah Al-Mamun et al.

Biofuel Research Journal • 2019

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) is considered as a cost-effective substitution to the present energy-intensive desalination methods. Transfer of salt ions through ion exchange membranes towards the counter electrodes takes place through the utilization of self-generated bioelectricity and the concentration gradient. Ions transportation is one of the main challenges faced in MDCs to which less attention has been paid during the course of development. Therefore, new insights into the application of MDCs for efficient utilization of the generated bioelectricity for desalination are of high demand. In light of this, the present research thoroughly investigated the behavior of ions transportation and bioelectricity generation in three MDCs using three different salt solutions; NaCl, synthetic and artificial seawater. The findings obtained suggested that the efficiency of ions transportation and fouling behavior were influenced by salt compositions and concentration of the salt solution. Multivalent ions (i.e. Mg2+, Ca2+, and PO43-) were found more prone to precipitation on the CEM forming a scaling layer, whereas, inorganic deposition and biofouling development were more likely to happen on the AEM. This study also confirmed the occurrence of a significant back diffusion of K+ from catholyte into desalination chamber. Such back diffusion could limit the use of potassium buffer in catholyte in real-scale applications. Moreover, the coefficients of salt transfer and ion diffusion were calculated using mathematical model and Excel solver in three running MDCs. Low salt transfer and ion diffusion coefficients values obtained for all three MDCs could explain the general low performance of MDCs. Further studies are required to optimize the salt transfer and ion diffusion coefficients to boost MDC performance in general; affecting their real-scale implementation.

Gui Yu Huang, Han Wang, Hui Zhao et al.

Journal of Power Sources • 2018

Bahareh Kokabian, Renotta K. Smith, John P. Brooks et al.

Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry • 2017

Dinesh Bejjanki, Karuppan Muthukumar, T. K. Radhakrishnan et al.

The Science of The Total Environment • 2020

Linfang Zhang, Guokai Fu, Zhi Zhang

Bioresource Technology • 2019

Suhad Shamil Jaroo, Ghufran Farooq Jumaah, Talib R. Abbas

Civil Engineering Journal • 2019

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) offers a new and sustainable approach to desalinate saltwater by directly utilizing the electrical power generated by bacteria during organic matter oxidation. In this study, we used microalgae Chlorella Vulgaris in the cathode chamber to produce oxygen as an electron accepter by photosynthesis process for generate bioelectricity power and treat oil refinery wastewater by microorganisms in both anode and cathode.The power density generated by this Photosynthetic Microbial Desalination Cell (PMDC) with 1KΩ external resistance at the first 4th hr. of operation period was 0.678 W/m3 of anode volume and 0.63 W/m3 of cathode volume. It increased after one day to a peak value of (4.32 W/m3 of anode volume and 4.013 W/m3 of cathode volume). The microalgae growth in the biocathode chamber followed in terms of optical density. The optical density increased from 0.546 at the beginning of the system operation to 1.71 after 24 days of operation period. The percentage removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) of oil refinery wastewater was 97.33% and 79.22% in anode and cathode chamber, respectively. The microalgae in the biocathode were able to remove volatile compounds causing odor from the influent wastewater. TDS removal rate 159.722 ppm/h with initial TDS in desalination chamber of 35000 ppm.

Tahereh Jafary, Wan Ramli Wan Daud, Saad A. Aljlil et al.

Desalination • 2018