Microbial desalination cell

A microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a biological electrochemical system that implements the use of electro-active bacteria to power desalination of water in situ, resourcing the natural anode and cathode gradient of the electro-active bacteria and thus creating an internal supercapacitor. Available water supply has become a worldwide endemic as only .3% of the Earth's water supply is usable for human consumption, while over 99% is sequestered by oceans, glaciers, brackish waters, and biomass. Current applications in electrocoagulation, such as microbial desalination cells, are able to desalinate and sterilize formerly unavailable water to render it suitable for safe water supply. Microbial desalination cells stem from microbial fuel cells, deviating by no longer requiring the use of a mediator and instead relying on the charged components of the internal sludge to power the desalination process. Microbial desalination cells therefore do not require additional bacteria to mediate the catabolism of the substrate during biofilm oxidation on the anodic side of the capacitor. MDCs and other bio-electrical systems are favored over reverse osmosis, nanofiltration and other desalination systems due to lower costs, energy and environmental impacts associated with bio-electrical systems.

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