Microbial desalination cell (MDC) is an affordable, eco-friendly, energy-efficient, and emerging technology that can help people in water-shortage regions and those without energy infrastructure get access to potable water while treating their wastewater. MDC is a new process that uses microorganisms to generate electricity from wastewater and use it for desalination through a sustainable approach. Therefore, no energy is required in this system while even wastewater is treated. Hence, localizing such a hi-tech in the sultanate of Oman and promoting it, was one of the priorities of research. The result of the study showed that the system could significantly reduce the cost of desalination and energy while treating wastewater at the commercial level. The aim of this project was to design and fabricate a MDC reactor for studying the desalination behaviour of seawater using sustainable technology. Hence, the behaviour of the MDC from internal and external resistance points of view, the impact of catholyte on the desalination rate, the polarization capacity and the economic and environmental impacts of integrating MDC with reverse osmosis (RO) were investigated in detail.
Research Team:
Dr. Tahereh Jafari
Dr. Anteneh Mesfin Yeneneh
Ms. Muna AlAjmi
Students:
Amal Al Balushi
Fatema Al Maqbali
Haitham Al Saidi
Ibtisam Al Maaini