Efficient salt removal in a continuously operated upflow microbial desalination cell with an air cathode

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 a continuously operated MDC – upflow microbial desalination cell (UMDC) for the purpose of salt removal. During the 4-month operation, the UMDC constantly removed salts and generated bio-electricity. At a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 4 days (salt solution) and current production of ∼62 mA, the UMDC was able to remove more than 99% of NaCl from the salt solution that had an initial salt concentration of 30 g total dissolved solids (TDS)/L. In addition, the TDS removal rate was 7.50 g TDS L−1 d−1 (salt solution volume) or 5.25 g TDS L−1 d−1 (wastewater volume), and the desalinated water met the drinking water standard, in terms of TDS concentration. A high charge transfer efficiency of 98.6% or 81% was achieved at HRT 1 or 4 d. The UMDC produced a maximum power density of 30.8 W/m3. The phenomena of bipolar electrodialysis and proton transport in the UMDC were discussed. These results demonstrated the potential of the UMDC as either a sole desalination process or a pre-desalination reactor for downstream desalination processes.