Application of ion exchange membranes in enhancing algal production alongside desalination of saline water in microbial
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MRS Advances © 2019 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2019.170
Application of ion exchange membranes in enhancing algal production alongside desalination of saline water in microbial fuel cell Neethu B., H. Pradhan, Pankaj Sarkar and M. M. Ghangrekar Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721302, India
Abstract
In the present world scenario the demand for fresh water and clean energy is driving the need to convert a microbial fuel cell (MFC) into an algal-based microbial desalination cell (MDC) that can support algal growth along with desalination of saline water. In this study, the performance of a five-chambered MDC fed with saline water having two different salt concentrations, namely 2.5 g/L and 5.0 g/L in desalination chamber, as well as MDC operated without algae in catholyte was investigated. The algal-based MDC operated with 5 g/L of total dissolved solid (TDS) in desalination chamber exhibited the best performance results among all other combinations giving a maximum power density of 45.52 mW/m2 and a desalination efficiency of 71 ± 2 %. Also, a chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 78 % and coulombic efficiency of 12.24 % was achieved with 5 g/L NaCl concentration in desalination chamber. Based on this experimental performance evaluation, it can be inferred that algal-based MDC can provide a promising and sustainable approach for wastewater treatment with the capability of simultaneous desalination, algal production and electrical energy recovery.
INTRODUCTION Owing to the fact that 97.5 % of the world’s water resource is salty and the rest 2.5 % accounts for fresh water, exploration of sustainable technology for desalinating this major portion of water is the need of the hour. Desalination can be done either by thermal process via evaporation and condensation or by membrane process in which pressure forces the salty water through membrane to separate the salts or by chemical activation [1]. Water with total dissolved solid (TDS) concentration between 3 g/L to 10 g/L is generally classified as brackish water. Electrodialysis (ED) and reverse osmosis are two major technologies that are mainly employed in treating brackish water, however
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most of these technologies are energy intensive [2]. Under these circumstances, microbial desalination cell (MDC), which has the capacity to produce energy from the chemical energy present in the wastewater rather than consuming it, can evolve as a promising solution for desalination. In a MDC, the electrons produced in the anodic chamber through bacterial oxidation of organic matter travel via an external circuit towards the terminal electron acceptor in the cathodic chamber. This reaction generates a potential difference between the electrodes, which pulls the anion
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