MICROBIAL DESALINATION CELL CASCADE

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) offers a decentralized wastewater treatment solution as well as an energy-efficient saline water desalination system, which also produces electricity. However, several factors need to be optimised such as: i) the membrane materials properties; ii) overall power density ouptup; and iii) increase of the desalination efficiency. This work focuses on the third part (iii). To enhance the desalination rate and improve the wastewater treatment, a system with 6 MDCs stacked in a cascade configuration has been tested. All three chambers had a volume of 33 mL with a cross-membrane area 25 cm2. The results showed that by cascading the MDCs the total desalination efficiency was susbstantially increased over 20% compared to that achieved from a single stage MDC, which is an excellent initial demonstration of the benefits of sequential treatment. As shown in this work, the MDCs cascade can be effectively optimised to achieve the desired desalination level whilst generating power. To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this is the first report in open literature that described the MDC cascade principles.