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Investigating the potential of locally sourced wastewater as a feedstock of microbial desalination cell (MDC) for bioenergy production

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Abstract

Freshwater sources are limited and access to clean water is an acute challenge in recent decades. The sustainable water treatments methods are need of time and water desalination is one of the most interesting technology. Most desalination technologies are required high energy input while Microbial Desalination Cells (MDCs) represent a sustainable option that has added benefit of solving the ever-increasing wastewater treatment and management problem. MDCs are a customized type of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) that depend on the electric potential generated by organic media to decrease salt concentration by electro-dialysis and give an unconventional way of clean water production. In this research, various experiments were conducted to examine the desalination ability of an indigenously designed experimental setup using domestic wastewater inoculated with sewage sludge under identical conditions. The electrochemical properties of the system, comprising the polarization curve and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), were examined along with the scope of chemical oxygen demand (COD) exclusion, to distinguish the cell behaviour. Furthermore, acidic water and Phosphate Buffer Solution (PBS) were tested as potential catholytes compared to the performance of the wastewater was gauged at various salt concentrations. The maximum salt removal efficiency was 31%, power density and current density were 32 mW-m−2 and 246 mA-m−2 respectively at a salt concentration of 35 g-L−1 that decreases with a decline in salt concentration. The maximum achieved power density and current density were 32 mW-m−2 and 246 mA-m−2 respectively. The applied method has huge potential to scaleup for large scale application in coastal regions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank U.S. Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Islamabad to carry out this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S -Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), (44000) Sector H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Rabia Liaquat, Tariq Mehmood, Asif Hussain Khoja & Naseem Iqbal

  2. Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Haider Ejaz

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Women University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Bagh, Bagh, Pakistan

    Sadia Mumtaz

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  1. Rabia Liaquat
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Liaquat, R., Mehmood, T., Khoja, A.H. et al. Investigating the potential of locally sourced wastewater as a feedstock of microbial desalination cell (MDC) for bioenergy production. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 44, 173–184 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-020-02433-2

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