Sensitivity Analysis of Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC) Technology and Comparison with Existing Biological Treatment Systems

Abstract

The present study was focused on the sensitivity analysis of UASBR, CAT, EAT, MBBR, RBC, biopiping, anoxic, and aerobic systems and their comparison with MDC technology. The infeed parameters were varied to check the system performance in terms of COD and BOD removal and system restoration with pH sensitivity. The experiment study showed a better performance in terms of COD reduction by RBC (92%) followed by UASBR (89%), biopiping (85%) and MDC system (82%) for substrate concentrations. However, variation of HRT showed, a maximum COD removal of 93% by RBC, 92% by UASBR and 72% by MDC systems. With variation in flow rate, RBC system (94%), followed by UASBR (91%), biopiping (88%) and MDC (in batch) 87% presented a better performance in terms of COD reduction. The study of pH variation showed a stability and resistivity of MDC system of sustaining 4 to 8 pH when compared to other biological systems tolerating pH range of 6.5 to 8.5. The organic loading to the MDC system was found to be maximum (12000 mg/L of COD) followed by UASBR (7500 mg/L), CAT (2000 mg/L) and remaining all the other systems (< 2000 mg/L). The feasibility matrix indicated that the MDC system exhibited strong performance in terms of high organic loading, TDS reduction, and power generation, surpassing all other biological treatment systems. The MDC system was promising towards treatability and potential for practical implementation highlighted its prospective contribution towards addressing wastewater treatment challenges and promoting sustainable solutions for various applications.