Experimental study on removal of nitrate from wastewater using microbial desalination cells

Abstract

This study integrated desalination with the biodegradation of nitrate in the wastewater and electricity generated in a three-chambers microbial desalination cell by utilizing the mutual benefits among the above functions. The microbial desalination cell produced the maximum voltage output of 635.8 mV, achieved NO3 -N removal efficiency exceeded 64.48 % and no NO 2 -N accumulation. Three microbial desalination cells were all proved to be the power source to successfully desalinate salt water at low concentration of 5 or 20 mg/L. The salt removal reached 88.1 %. The results showed that the microbial desalination cell could readily generated the electricity, desalinized in the middle chamber and removed the nitrate in the cathode chamber, these will enable us to optimize the performance of the microbial desalination cell and develop a more efficient process for both desalination in the middle chamber and wastewater treatment in the anode and cathode chambers.