Scope of microbial desalination for removal of chlorides from brackish water

Asutosh College, Kolkata-700 026, India

E-mail : tukaiantara18@gmail.com

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur,

Howrah-711 103, West Bengal, India

E-mail : supriyogoswami.ju@gmail.com, debabrata@civil.iiests.ac.in

Manuscript received 15 November 2017, accepted 22 February 2018

Since the past few years, scientists are concerned on desalination of seawater and brackish water to increase the amount of drinking water. Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC) is a promising bioelectrochemical technology of near future in the area of water treatment. Being a renewable energy method, it is well known for simultaneous wastewater treatment and desalination of brackish water. MDC does not require any external energy source while desalinating water, thus it tries to mitigate the scarcity of drinking water. Microbial Desalination Cell is actually a combination of a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) and electrodialysis (ED). This is a very novel concept for sustainable development and should be well reared up. This paper provides an all over idea regarding the scope and use of MDC process in chloride removal from brackish water. The origin of MDC, various configurations and their applications are discussed along with their advantages and disadvantages.