Advances in Microbial Desalination Cells

Dear Colleagues,

Finding engineering solutions for greener water treatment and power generation has been the focus of research in the last few years. Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) are a bioelectrochemical system that uses low-cost carbon sources as substrates and microorganisms to treat wastewater, perform desalination, and produce electricity. Therefore, MDCs offer the potential to overcome the challenges of water scarcity and renewable energy generation, addressing several SDGs. However, for their application, key challenges, such as microbial selection, scale-up, lower power outputs and durability, and higher costs, must be overcome. Additionally, compared to the existing desalination technologies, MDCs have lower desalination efficiency due to the lower current production rates of the bioelectrochemical systems. Addressing these challenges clearly demands an interdisciplinary approach to achieve sustainable improvements based on a systematic understanding of the biological, electrochemical, and transport phenomena controlling MDC behavior.

The major goal of this Special Issue is to delve deeper into understanding the different challenges of these systems and use this new knowledge to maximize electricity production (power output) and salt and chemical oxygen demand removal rates with lower costs in order to make this technology attractive to scale-up and to be used to simultaneously produce electricity, desalination, and wastewater treatment.

The topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Optimization of operation conditions;
• Optimization of design conditions;
• Modeling approaches;
• Diagnostic techniques;
• Durability and lifetime;
• Economic evaluation;
• Scale-up;
• New materials;
• Application.

Dr. Vânia B. Oliveira
Prof. Dr. Alexandra M.F.R. Pinto
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• microbial desalination cell (MDC)
• design
• optimization
• desalination rate
• wastewater treatment
• power output