Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) hold great promise for drinking  water production because of potential energy savings during the  desalination process. In this study, we developed continuously operated  MDCs � upflow microbial desalination cells (UMDCs) at liter scale, which are among the largest MDCs reported in literatures. During  several-month operation, the UMDCs constantly removed salts and  generated bio-electricity. At a longer hydraulic retention time (HRT),  the UMDCs were able to remove most of NaCl from the salt solution that  had an initial salt concentration of 35 g total dissolved solids  (TDS)/L. The performance of desalination was comparable to what we have  achieved from a smaller scale MDC that was published previously.   Artificial seawater was also tested. We found that several factors  contribute to the reduced TDS.  These results demonstrated the  feasibility of scaling up MDC and realize a sustainable technology both simultaneous organic removal and desalination.

Simultaneous organic removal and desalination in liter-scale microbial desalination cells

241st National Meeting (2011)

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