Abstract
The tri-functional purpose of Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC) has shown a great promise in our current scarcity of water, an increase in water pollution and the high cost of electricity production. As a biological system, the baseline force that drives its performance is the presence of exoelectrogens in the anode chamber. Their presence in the anodic chamber of MDC systems enables the treatment of water, desalination of seawater, and the production of electrical energy. This study reviews the characteristics of exoelectrogens, as a driving force in MDC and examines factors which influence their growth and the performance efficiency of MDC systems. It also addresses the efficiency of mixed cultures with certain predominant species as compared to pure cultures used in MDC systems. Furthermore, the study suggests the need to genetically modify certain predominant strains in mixed cultures to enhance their performance in COD removal, desalination and power output and the integration of MDC with other technologies for cost-effective processes.
Highlights
Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC), a tri-functional modern technology, developed for the treatment of wastewater, desalination, and production of electrical energy, was first proposed in 2009 by Cao [1]
A vital part of these systems is the presence of exoelectrogens in the anodic chamber where the performance of the MDC system mainly depends on these exoelectrogens
There has been a wide range of substrates used in MDC, and it has been observed that certain exoelectrogens are predominant in mixed cultures in the presence of certain kinds of substrates
Summary
Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC), a tri-functional modern technology, developed for the treatment of wastewater, desalination, and production of electrical energy, was first proposed in 2009 by Cao [1]. Since the introduction of MDC, intensive studies have been done on its wastewater treatment, desalination, and power generation processes as well as its architecture and mode of operation [1,2,5,6,10,11,12]. This study reviews the characteristics of exoelectrogens, as a driving-force in MDC and examines factors such as pH, desalination, substrate, and power output, which affect their growth and the performance efficiency of MDC systems. It probes the efficiency of mixed cultures with certain predominant species as compared to pure cultures used in MDC systems and outlines significant aspects of further investigation exoelectrogens in MDC and other related fields
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