Use of a liter-scale microbial desalination cell as a platform to study bioelectrochemical desalination with salt solution or artificial seawater.

Bioelectrochemical desalination is potentially advantageous because of bioenergy production and integrated wastewater treatment and desalination. In this work, the performance and energy benefits of a liter-scale upflow microbial desalination cell (UMDC) were evaluated. The UMDC desalinated both salt solution (NaCl) and artificial seawater, and the removal rate of total dissolved solid (TDS) increased with an increased hydraulic retention time, although TDS reduction in artificial seawater was lower than that in salt solution. Our analysis suggested that electricity generation was a predominant factor in removing TDS (more than 70%), and that other factors, like water osmosis and unknown processes, also contributed to TDS reduction. It was more favorable given the high energy efficiency, when treating salt solution, to operate the UMDC under the condition of high power output compared with that of high current generation because of the amount of energy production; while high current generation was more desired with seawater desalination because of lower salinity in the effluent. Under the condition of the high power output and the assumption of the UMDC as a predesalination in connection with a reversal osmosis (RO) system, the UMDC could produce electrical energy that might potentially account for 58.1% (salt solution) and 16.5% (artificial seawater) of the energy required by the downstream RO system. Our results demonstrated the great potential of bioelectrochemical desalination.