TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhanced water desalination efficiency in an air-cathode stacked microbial electrodeionization cell (SMEDIC)
AU - Shehab, Noura A.
AU - Amy, Gary L.
AU - Logan, Bruce E.
AU - Saikaly, Pascal E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was sponsored by a PhD fellowship, a Global Research Partnership-Collaborative Fellows Award ( GRP-CF-2011-14-S ), KAUST Award KUS-I1-003-13 and discretionary investigator funds at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) . We would like to thank Dr. Fang Zhang, from Penn State University, for helping with analysis of the components of the internal resistances.
PY - 2014/11/1
Y1 - 2014/11/1
N2 - A microbial desalination cell was developed that contained a stack of membranes packed with ion exchange resins between the membranes to reduce ohmic resistances and improve performance. This new configuration, called a stacked microbial electro-deionization cell (SMEDIC), was compared to a control reactor (SMDC) lacking the resins. The SMEDIC+S reactors contained both a spacer and 1.4±0.2. mL of ion exchange resin (IER) per membrane channel, while the spacer was omitted in the SMEDIC-S reactors and so a larger volume of resin (2.4±0.2. mL) was used. The overall extent of desalination using the SMEDIC with a moderate (brackish water) salt concentration (13. g/L) was 90-94%, compared to only 60% for the SMDC after 7 fed-batch cycles of the anode. At a higher (seawater) salt concentration of 35. g/L, the extent of desalination reached 61-72% (after 10 cycles) for the SMEDIC, compared to 43% for the SMDC. The improved performance was shown to be due to the reduction in ohmic resistances, which were 130. Ω (SMEDIC-S) and 180. Ω (SMEDIC+S) at the high salt concentration, compared to 210. Ω without resin (SMDC). These results show that IERs can improve performance of stacked membranes for both moderate and high initial salt concentrations.
AB - A microbial desalination cell was developed that contained a stack of membranes packed with ion exchange resins between the membranes to reduce ohmic resistances and improve performance. This new configuration, called a stacked microbial electro-deionization cell (SMEDIC), was compared to a control reactor (SMDC) lacking the resins. The SMEDIC+S reactors contained both a spacer and 1.4±0.2. mL of ion exchange resin (IER) per membrane channel, while the spacer was omitted in the SMEDIC-S reactors and so a larger volume of resin (2.4±0.2. mL) was used. The overall extent of desalination using the SMEDIC with a moderate (brackish water) salt concentration (13. g/L) was 90-94%, compared to only 60% for the SMDC after 7 fed-batch cycles of the anode. At a higher (seawater) salt concentration of 35. g/L, the extent of desalination reached 61-72% (after 10 cycles) for the SMEDIC, compared to 43% for the SMDC. The improved performance was shown to be due to the reduction in ohmic resistances, which were 130. Ω (SMEDIC-S) and 180. Ω (SMEDIC+S) at the high salt concentration, compared to 210. Ω without resin (SMDC). These results show that IERs can improve performance of stacked membranes for both moderate and high initial salt concentrations.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2014.06.058
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2014.06.058
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84904567028
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 469
SP - 364
EP - 370
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
ER -