Novel Application of Pe Self-Adhesive Wallpaper to Replace Costly Membranes in Photosynthesis Microbial Desalination Cell for Simultaneous Seawater Desalination, Sewage Treatment, and Energy Recovery

Ismail, Zainab Ziad; Sadeq, Ahmed Mustafa

doi:10.22079/jmsr.2025.2053942.1705

Novel Application of Pe Self-Adhesive Wallpaper to Replace Costly Membranes in Photosynthesis Microbial Desalination Cell for Simultaneous Seawater Desalination, Sewage Treatment, and Energy Recovery

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Zainab Ziad Ismail ¹

Ahmed Mustafa Sadeq ²

¹ Department of Environmental Engineering University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

² 1-Department of Environmental Engineering University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq 2- Ministry of Environment, Iraq

10.22079/jmsr.2025.2053942.1705

Abstract

There is a global drive to apply sustainable techniques such as photosynthetic microbial desalination cells (PMDCs) for simultaneous wastewater treatment, desalination of saline water, and power generation. However, the exorbitant expense of the typical membranes employed in PMDCs has limited their broad usage. This study attempts to overcome this challenge by investigating for the first time the potential of using inexpensive PE foam self-adhesive wall panels (PEFSW) material as a separator between the three compartments in the PMDC to replace the costly typical cation and anion exchange membranes. Two identically designed PMDCs were constructed, setup, and continually operated for 180 days. The membraneless-PMDC was equipped with PEFSW sheets, whereby, the membrane-PMDC was assembled with the conventional cation and anion exchange membranes. Both PMDCs were continually fed with real sewage into the anaerobic anode chamber and actual saline seawater into the desalination chamber. Results revealed that the membraneless-PMDC exhibited remarkable maximum desalination elimination efficiency, organic content removal efficiency, and power output of 83%, 99.6%, and 489 mW/m³ versus 81%, 98.1%, and 430 mW/m³, in membrane-PMDC, respectively. Also, four different growth kinetic models including Blackman, Moser, Monod, and Teissier were adopted to describe the relevance between anodic biofilm development and substrate utilization in the PMDCs. The results revealed that the four models demonstrated excellent fitting with the experimental results with determination coefficients (R²) ranged between 0.94 to 0.96. The beauty of the suggested innovative approach is the absence of PEFSW fouling during the operation period and being inexpensive option.

Graphical Abstract