EFFECT OF CARBON SOURCE CONCENTRATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A MICROBIAL DESALINATION CELL CONTAINING A MICROBIAL CONSORTIUM

Water shortage is one of the main challenges that should be addressed [World Economic Forum Global Risks (۲۰۱۵)]. One important strategy for solving this problem is to obtain clean water from the abundant saline water on earth using different desalination technologies. Among these technologies, membrane-based technologies like membrane distillation and reverse osmosis, often show high salt removal efficiency. They are especially useful for treating large volumes of highly saline solutions (e.g., seawater) [Al- Obaidani et al. (۲۰۰۸); Sabramani and Jacangelo (۲۰۱۵) ]. However, several limitations such as high cost, large installation footprint, and high energy consumption, have restricted the application of these technologies. Hence, several studies have been conducted to develop alternative methods that are more energy-efficient for desalination [Lee et al. (۲۰۲۱)]. Microbial desalination cell (MDC) as a new bio-electrochemical system (BES), was designed a decade ago in response to the need for more sustainable methods for desalination [Cao et al. (۲۰۰۹)]. The MDC unit is composed of at least three chambers: ۱) an anaerobic anodic chamber hosting the electroactive microbial community that oxidizes organic matter (e.g., wastewater) and transfers electrons to the anode; ۲) a central desalination chamber separated from the others by an anion exchange membrane (AEM) and a cation exchange membrane (CEM); and ۳) a cathodic chamber where an electron acceptor (oxidized species) is electrochemically reduced to close the circuit [Cao et al. (۲۰۰۹)].In the current work, a lab-scale MDC system was designed for simultaneousdesalination of synthetic saline water and energy production. The impact of the concentration of carbon source in anode chamber on MDC performance was investigated in terms of current and power generation, COD removal, and desalination efficiencies