Microbial desalination cell technology: Contribution to sustainable waste water treatment process, current status and future applications

•Microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a new and green technology for water desalination.•MDC technology can be used for applications such as sea water desalination, hydrogen generation, hardness removal and ground water remediation.•The basic research knowledge on MDC is relatively small when compared to the conventional techniques.•Hence, significant research is needed for potential developments in advancing microbial desalination technology.•MDC systems in future may become one of the sustainable technologies in providing clean water.

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) has been developed for removing water salinity, electricity generation, and wastewater management. MDC emerged from the microbial fuel cell (MFC) and electro-dialysis had recently received a significant consideration for desalination and wastewater treatment as an environmentally friendly technology. The above process can be combined with regular desalination systems or can perform individually. The current paper explains the potential applications of MDCs viz. sea water and brackish water desalination, hydrogen gas generation, hardness removal and ground water remediation. The present article outlines the principle behind the functioning of a standard MDC arrangement with a short introduction to the bacteriological media. The effect of experimental conditions in enhancing the MDC operation is optimized. This review highlights the importance of research efforts towards the current status, progress and commercialization of MDCs.