Pushing microbial desalination cells towards field application: Prevailing challenges, potential mitigation strategies, and future prospects

Recent Advances in Scaling up Bioelectrochemical Systems: A Review

Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are devices capable of converting chemical energy into electrical energy using microorganisms as catalysts. These systems have been extensively studied at the laboratory level, but, due to multiple difficulties, their large-scale implementation has been explored only sparingly. This study presents the most recent technological advances for scaling up BESs. In the same way, the main technical and economic challenges that hinder the correct implementation of these systems at a large scale are mentioned. The study concludes with a review of successful case studies in scaling up BESs and discusses future directions and emerging trends.

Spotlighting of microbial electrodeionization cells for sustainable wastewater treatment: Application of machine learning

Microbial electrodeionization cells (MECs) have been investigated for various potential applications, including the elimination of persistent pollutants, chemical synthesis, the recovery of resources, and the development of biosensors. Nevertheless, MEC technology is still developing, and practical large-scale applications face significant obstacles. This review aims to investigate MEC implementations in sustainable wastewater treatment. Ideas and concepts of MEC technology, the setup of the electrodeionization component, the membranes of MECs, the working mechanism of MECs, and the various microorganisms used in MECs are discussed. Additionally, difficulties and prospective outcomes were discussed. The goal of this review is to support scientists and engineers in fully grasping the most recent developments in MEC technologies and applications.

Construction of microbial electrodialysis cells equipped with internal proton migration pathways: Enhancement of wastewater treatment, desalination, and hydrogen production

Microbial electrodialysis cells (MEDCs) offer simultaneous wastewater treatment, water desalination, and hydrogen production. In a conventional design of MEDCs, the overall performance is retarded by the accumulation of protons on the anode due to the integration of an anion exchange membrane (AEM). The accumulation of protons reduces the anolyte pH to become acidic, affecting the microbial viability and thus limiting the charge carrier needed for the cathodic reaction. This study has modified the conventional MEDC with an internal proton migration pathway, known as the internal proton migration pathway-MEDC (IP-MEDC). Simulation tests under abiotic conditions demonstrated that the pH changes in the anolyte and catholyte of IP-MEDC were smaller than the pH changes in the anolyte and catholyte without the proton pathways. Under biotic conditions, the performance of the IP-MEDC agreed well with the simulation test, showing a significantly higher chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate, desalination rate, and hydrogen production than without the migration pathway. This result is supported by the lowest charge transfer resistance shown by EIS analysis and the abundance of microbes on the bioanode through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) observation. However, hydrogen production was diminished in the second-fed batch cycle, presumably due to the active diffusion of high Cl¯ concentrations from desalination to the anode chamber, which was detrimental to microbial growth. Enlarging the anode volume by threefold improved the COD removal rate and hydrogen production rate by 1.7- and 3.4-fold, respectively, owing to the dilution effect of Cl¯ in the anode. This implied that the dilution effect satisfies both the microbial viability and conductivity. This study also suggests that the anolyte and catholyte replacement frequencies can be reduced, typically at a prolonged hydraulic retention time, thus minimizing the operating cost (e.g., solution pumping). The use of a high concentration of NaCl (35 g L^-1) in the desalination chamber and catholyte provides a condition that is close to practicality.

Ammonia/ammonium removal/recovery from wastewaters using bioelectrochemical systems (BES): A review

This review updates the current research efforts on using BES to recover NH₃/NH₄⁺, highlighting the novel configurations and introducing the working principles and the applications of microbial fuel cell (MFC), microbial electrolysis cell (MEC), microbial desalination cell (MDC), and microbial electrosynthesis cell (MESC) for NH₃/NH₄⁺ removal/recovery. However, commonly studied BES processes for NH₃/NH₄⁺ removal/recovery are energy intensive with external aeration needed for NH₃ stripping being the largest energy input. In such a process bipolar membranes used for yielding a local alkaline pool recovering NH₃ is not cost-effective. This gives a chance to microbial electrosynthesis which turned out to be a potential alternative option to approach circular bioeconomy. Furtherly, the reactor volume and NH₃/NH₄⁺ removal/recovery efficiency has a weakly positive correlation, indicating that there might be other factors controlling the reactor performance that are yet to be investigated.

Bioelectrochemical systems in aid of sustainable biorefineries for the production of value-added products and resource recovery from wastewater: A critical review and future perspectives

Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) have the potential to be used in a variety of applications such as waste biorefinery, pollutants removal, CO₂ capture, and the electrosynthesis of clean and renewable biofuels or byproducts, among others. In contrast, many technical challenges need to be addressed before BES can be scaled up and put into real-world applications. Utilizing BES, this review article presents a state-of-the-art overall view of crucial concepts and the most recent innovative results and achievements acquired from the BES system. Special attention is placed on a hybrid approach for product recovery and wastewater treatment. There is also a comprehensive overview of waste biorefinery designs that are included. In conclusion, the significant obstacles and technical concerns found throughout the BES studies are discussed, and suggestions and future requirements for the virtual usage of the BES concept in actual waste treatment are outlined.

Effective salt removal from domestic reverse osmosis reject water in a microbial desalination cell

Microbial desalination cells (MDC) are evaluated as an environmentally friendly approach for purifying saline water by using power generated by the decomposition of organic materials in the wastewater. The present study is to evaluate the ferrocyanide-redox and biocathode approach in treating simulated saline water and subsequently recovering bio-electricity using actual domestic reverse osmosis reject water. For the desalination of simulated saline water and domestic reverse osmosis reject water, a three-chamber microbial desalination cell with graphite electrodes and anion and cation exchange membranes was constructed. When treating simulated saline water, the biocathode technique achieved a 5% improvement in salt removal and a 4.9% increase in current and power density when compared to the ferrocyanide-redox approach. When biocathode MDC was used to treat domestic reverse osmosis reject water, a maximum current and power density of 3.81 μA/cm² and 0.337 μW/cm², respectively, were recorded, as well as COD removal of 83.9% at the desalination chamber and ions reduction for Na, K, and Ca of up to 79%, 76.5%, and 72%, respectively, in a batch operation for 31 days with a stable pH (≈ 7). Thus, the study revealed a microbial desalination cell capable of recovering bioenergy and reducing salt from domestic reverse osmosis reject water with a consistent pH range.

Renewable Energy-Driven Desalination: New Trends and Future Prospects of Small Capacity Systems

New trends and future prospects for small capacity systems of Renewable Energy-driven DESalination (REDES) are reviewed and assessed in this paper over a nominal desalination capacity range of 3–1000 m3/d. A thorough literature review is reported in order to evaluate current research and developing activities. Outstanding commercial prospects in the near future are identified for two off-grid REDES technologies under development. First, wave energy converters with direct coupling to seawater desalination. Second, solar micro gas turbines with biofuel backup coupled to reverse osmosis (RO) desalination and/or zero liquid discharge water treatment. These systems, as well as mature REDES plants (namely PV/RO and wind turbines/RO), will benefit from forthcoming advances in energy efficiency in the RO process itself. The Closed Circuit RO desalination (CCROTM) concept may be a key configuration for enhancing RE-driven RO desalination. Additionally, opportunities for innovation in seawater RO desalination with variable power consumption are highlighted. On the other hand, our conclusions highlight opportunities for developing novel portable REDES systems based on solar membrane distillation with a portable linear Fresnel concentrator manufactured by SOLATOM. Additionally, the concept of portable systems could foster the commercial development of microbial desalination cells combined with solar PV energy and RO powered by tidal currents.

Integrating anaerobic digestion with bioelectrochemical system for performance enhancement: A mini review

Strategies for enhancing performance of anaerobic digestion (AD) process has been widely studied. The bioelectrochemical system (BES), including microbial fuel cell, microbial electrolysis cell (MEC), microbial desalination cell, and microbial electrosynthesis, had been proposed to integrate with AD for performance enhancement. This mini-review summarizes the current researches that integrated AD with BES to enhance the performance of the former. The working principles of BES were introduced. The integrated configurations of AD-BES as well as the associated applications were summarized. The statistics analysis for AD-MEC performances reported in literature were then performed to confirm the effects of reactor size and applied voltage on the methane productivity and enhancement. The challenges and prospects of the integrated AD-BES were delineated, and the potential scenarios of applying integrated AD-BES in field were discussed.

Plant microbial fuel cell: Opportunities, challenges, and prospects

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are considered as greener technologies for generation of bioenergy and simultaneously treatment of wastewater. However, the major drawback of these technologies was, rapid utilization of substrate by the microbes to generate power. This drawback is solved to a great extent by plant microbial fuel cell (PMFC) technology. Therefore, this review critically explored the challenges associated with PMFC technology and approaches to be employed for making it commercially feasible, started with brief introduction of MFCs, and PMFCs. This review also covered various factors like light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration in air, type of plant used, microbial flora in rhizosphere and also electrode material used which influence the efficiency of PMFC. Finally, this review comprehensively revealed the possibility of future intervention, such as application of biochar and preferable plants species which improve the performance of PMFC along with their opportunities challenges and prospects.

Advancements in spontaneous microbial desalination technology for sustainable water purification and simultaneous power generation: A review

Population growth and rapid urbanization have put a lot of pressure on the already scarce freshwater around the globe. The availability of freshwater is not only limited but it is non-uniform also. Available desalination technologies help mitigate water shortage; however, these techniques are energy-intensive and unsustainable. Desalination technologies utilizing renewable energy and bio-electrochemical systems have been developed to achieve limited sustainability. With technological advancements, microbial desalination cell (MDC) has been developed which is capable of desalination, wastewater treatment, and power generation simultaneously. This review critically examined the performance of various MDC techniques concerning their stimulus parameters including COD removal, total desalination rate, total dissolved solids reduction rate, Coulombic efficiency, and power density. Limitations of MDCs have also been incorporated in the review. Work on MDC coupled with other robust desalination techniques offering advantages such as better desalination and more water recovery e.g. osmotic-MDC etc. has been included. Researchers have tremendously worked on MDCs with different electro-catalysts. Few of these are not sustainable and costly. Authors have reviewed critically with belief that it will pave a way for the commercialization of this eco-friendly technology.