Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Treatment and desalination of domestic wastewater for water reuse in a four-chamber microbial desalination cell

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) have been studied for contaminant removal from wastewater and salinity reduction in saline water. However, in an MDC wastewater treatment and desalination occurs in different streams, and high salinity of the treated wastewater creates challenges for wastewater reuse. Herein, a single-stream MDC (SMDC) with four chambers was developed for simultaneous organic removal and desalination in the same synthetic wastewater. This SMDC could achieve a desalination rate of 12.2–31.5 mg L−1 h−1 and remove more than 90 % of the organics and 75 % of NH4 +-N; the pH imbalance between the anode and cathode chambers was also reduced. Several strategies such as controlling catholyte pH, increasing influent COD concentration, adopting the batch mode, applying external voltage, and increasing the alkalinity of wastewater were investigated for improving the SMDC performance. Under a condition of 0.4 V external voltage, anolyte pH adjustment, and a batch mode, the SMDC decreased the wastewater salinity from 1.45 to below 0.75 mS cm−1, which met the salinity standard of wastewater for irrigation. Those results encourage further development of the SMDC technology for sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bauder TA, Waskom RM, Davis JG, Sutherland PL (2011) Irrigation water quality criteria. Colorado State University Extension Fort Collins, CO

  • Brastad KS, He Z (2013) Water softening using microbial desalination cell technology. Desalination 309:32–37. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2012.09.015

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cao X, Huang X, Liang P, Xiao K, Zhou Y, Zhang X, Logan BE (2009) A new method for water desalination using microbial desalination cells. Environ Sci Technol 43:7148–7152

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen X, Xia X, Liang P, Cao X, Sun H, Huang X (2011) Stacked microbial desalination cells to enhance water desalination efficiency. Environ Sci Technol 45:2465–2470. doi:10.1021/es103406m

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen S, Liu G, Zhang R, Qin B, Luo Y (2012) Development of the microbial electrolysis desalination and chemical-production cell for desalination as well as acid and alkali productions. Environ Sci Technol 46:2467–2472. doi:10.1021/es203332g

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen X, Sun D, Zhang X, Liang P, Huang X (2015) Novel self-driven microbial nutrient recovery cell with simultaneous wastewater purification. Sci Rep 5:15744. doi:10.1038/srep15744

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Elmekawy A, Hegab HM, Pant D (2014) The near-future integration of microbial desalination cells with reverse osmosis technology. Energy Environ Sci 7:3921–3933

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ge Z, Dosoretz CG, He Z (2014) Effects of number of cell pairs on the performance of microbial desalination cells. Desalination 341:101–106. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2014.02.029

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • He Z, Wagner N, Minteer SD, Angenent LT (2006) An upflow microbial fuel cell with an interior cathode: assessment of the internal resistance by impedance spectroscopy. Environ Sci Technol 40:5212–5217

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • He Z, Huang Y, Manohar AK, Mansfeld F (2008) Effect of electrolyte pH on the rate of the anodic and cathodic reactions in an air-cathode microbial fuel cell. Bioelectrochemistry 74:78–82

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson KS, Drew DM, He Z (2011a) Efficient salt removal in a continuously operated upflow microbial desalination cell with an air cathode. Bioresour Technol 102:376–380. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.06.030

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson KS, Drew DM, He Z (2011b) Use of a liter-scale microbial desalination cell as a platform to study bioelectrochemical desalination with salt solution or artificial seawater. Environ Sci Technol 45:4652–4657

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim Y, Logan BE (2013a) Microbial desalination cells for energy production and desalination. Desalination 308:122–130. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2012.07.022

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim Y, Logan BE (2013b) Simultaneous removal of organic matter and salt ions from saline wastewater in bioelectrochemical systems. Desalination 308:115–121

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liang P, Yuan L, Yang X, Zhou S, Huang X (2013) Coupling ion-exchangers with inexpensive activated carbon fiber electrodes to enhance the performance of capacitive deionization cells for domestic wastewater desalination. Water Res 47:2523–2530

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Logan BE et al (2006) Microbial fuel cells: methodology and technology. Environ Sci Technol 40:5181–5192

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Luo H, Jenkins PE, Ren Z (2010) Concurrent desalination and hydrogen generation using microbial electrolysis and desalination cells. Environ Sci Technol 45:340–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehanna M, Saito T, Yan J, Hickner M, Cao X, Huang X, Logan BE (2010) Using microbial desalination cells to reduce water salinity prior to reverse osmosis. Energy Environ Sci 3:1114. doi:10.1039/c002307h

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Morel A, Zuo K, Xia X, Wei J, Luo X, Liang P, Huang X (2012) Microbial desalination cells packed with ion-exchange resin to enhance water desalination rate. Bioresour Technol 118:43–48. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2012.04.093

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pescod MB (1992) Wastewater treatment and use in agriculture. FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 47. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome

  • Pilat B (2001) Practice of water desalination by electrodialysis. Desalination 139:385–392

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ping Q, Zhang C, Chen X, Zhang B, Huang Z, He Z (2014) Mathematical model of dynamic behavior of microbial desalination cells for simultaneous wastewater treatment and water desalination. Environ Sci Technol 48:13010–13019. doi:10.1021/es504089x

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ping Q, Huang Z, Dosoretz C, He Z (2015) Integrated experimental investigation and mathematical modeling of brackish water desalination and wastewater treatment in microbial desalination cells. Water Res 77:13–23. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2015.03.008

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Qu Y, Feng Y, Wang X, Liu J, Lv J, He W, Logan BE (2012) Simultaneous water desalination and electricity generation in a microbial desalination cell with electrolyte recirculation for pH control. Bioresour Technol 106:89–94. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2011.11.045

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Qu Y et al (2013) Salt removal using multiple microbial desalination cells under continuous flow conditions. Desalination 317:17–22. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2013.02.016

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saeed HM et al (2015) Microbial desalination cell technology: a review and a case study. Desalination 359:1–13. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2014.12.024

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sevda S, Yuan H, He Z, Abu-Reesh IM (2015) Microbial desalination cells as a versatile technology: functions, optimization and prospective. Desalination:9–17

  • Stoll ZA, Forrestal C, Ren ZJ, Pei X (2015) Shale gas produced water treatment using innovative microbial capacitive desalination cell. J Hazard Mater 283c:847–855

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tong Y, He Z (2013) Nitrate removal from groundwater driven by electricity generation and heterotrophic denitrification in a bioelectrochemical system. J Hazard Mater 262:614–619. doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2013.09.008

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Angelidaki I (2013) A new method for in situ nitrate removal from groundwater using submerged microbial desalination–denitrification cell (SMDDC). Water Res 47:1827–1836

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang B, He Z (2012) Integrated salinity reduction and water recovery in an osmotic microbial desalination cell. RSC Adv 2:3265–3269

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang F, He Z (2015) Scaling up microbial desalination cell system with a post-aerobic process for simultaneous wastewater treatment and seawater desalination. Desalination 360:28–34. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2015.01.009

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang F, Jacobson KS, Torres P, He Z (2010) Effects of anolyte recirculation rates and catholytes on electricity generation in a litre-scale upflow microbial fuel cell. Energy Environ Sci 3:1347–1352

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang F, Chen M, Zhang Y, Zeng RJ (2012) Microbial desalination cells with ion exchange resin packed to enhance desalination at low salt concentration. J Membr Sci 417–418:28–33 doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2012.06.009

  • Zuo K, Cai J, Liang S, Wu S, Zhang C, Liang P, Huang X (2014) A ten liter stacked microbial desalination cell packed with mixed ion-exchange resins for secondary effluent desalination. Environ Sci Technol 48:9917–9924

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This publication was made possible by NPRP grant no. 6-289-2-125 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Yaobin Lu

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

    Ibrahim M. Abu-Reesh

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Zhen He

Authors
  1. Yaobin Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ibrahim M. Abu-Reesh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zhen He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhen He.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(DOCX 53 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lu, Y., Abu-Reesh, I.M. & He, Z. Treatment and desalination of domestic wastewater for water reuse in a four-chamber microbial desalination cell. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 17236–17245 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6910-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6910-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation