TY - JOUR
T1 - Microbial desalination cell
T2 - Desalination through conserving energy
AU - Zahid, Masirah
AU - Savla, Nishit
AU - Pandit, Soumya
AU - Thakur, Vijay Kumar
AU - Jung, Sokhee P.
AU - Gupta, Piyush Kumar
AU - Prasad, Ram
AU - Marsili, Enrico
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is funded by the Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program (Grant number: 110119FD4537), School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan and Seed Grant (Grant number. SUSF2001/01), School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida, India.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - The increased requirement of potable water led to the development of efficient desalination technologies such as reverse osmosis membranes, which are currently mass-manufactured. However, other approaches are being explored, as emerging countries contribute to the global demand for drinking water. Microbial desalination cells (MDC), in which microbial consortia use chemical energy to remove ions from low-salinity aqueous solutions, have been investigated for some time but the actual relevance of this technology in the overall desalination industry remains unclear. pH maintenance on the cathodic side, internal resistance along with membrane fouling and its longevity are some technical shortcomings related to the practical use of MDCs, which can be partially circumvented by using multiple interconnected configurations. Further research is required to scale up the MDC technology while decreasing its cost and environmental impact. This review summarizes the operative principle of MDCs, the most common MDC cells configurations, and describes the variables that influence their performance in light of full-scale applications. A techno-economic analysis and lifecycle assessment of microbial desalination systems is also included, along with the description of electrode fabrication and genetic manipulation strategies that can improve the MDC cells performance.
AB - The increased requirement of potable water led to the development of efficient desalination technologies such as reverse osmosis membranes, which are currently mass-manufactured. However, other approaches are being explored, as emerging countries contribute to the global demand for drinking water. Microbial desalination cells (MDC), in which microbial consortia use chemical energy to remove ions from low-salinity aqueous solutions, have been investigated for some time but the actual relevance of this technology in the overall desalination industry remains unclear. pH maintenance on the cathodic side, internal resistance along with membrane fouling and its longevity are some technical shortcomings related to the practical use of MDCs, which can be partially circumvented by using multiple interconnected configurations. Further research is required to scale up the MDC technology while decreasing its cost and environmental impact. This review summarizes the operative principle of MDCs, the most common MDC cells configurations, and describes the variables that influence their performance in light of full-scale applications. A techno-economic analysis and lifecycle assessment of microbial desalination systems is also included, along with the description of electrode fabrication and genetic manipulation strategies that can improve the MDC cells performance.
KW - Microbial desalination cells
KW - Microbial Reverse Electrodialysis Cells
KW - Osmotic microbial desalination cells
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U2 - 10.1016/j.desal.2021.115381
DO - 10.1016/j.desal.2021.115381
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116874613
SN - 0011-9164
VL - 521
JO - Desalination
JF - Desalination
M1 - 115381
ER -