Document

An Approach to enhance the desalination process : coupling solar cell desalination with microbial desalination cell (Pilot).

Publisher
Sultan Qaboos University.
Gregorian
2022
Language
English
English abstract
Water scarcity is a major issue in the world, with an increase in population growth rate there is an increased stress on fresh water demand. Desalination is a way to combat this issue and a solution to provide potable water. There are different types of desalination processes such as thermal, mechanical, and electrical processes, but they are energy intensive and costly. The worldwide goal in industries is to follow sustainable methods and environmentally friendly techniques to provide solutions for such problems. Solar Desalination works by using thermal solar energy to desalinate water through the concepts of heating, evaporation, and condensation of water. Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC) is a technology that uses exo-electrogenic microorganisms to generate electricity and desalinate water through ion exchange process. Although MDC and Solar desalination have been researched separately and have been proven successful in terms of the removal of salt in water and energy production, there hasn't been enough research done on the coupling of MDC with Solar Desalination Cell. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of MDC that was coupled with solar desalination to provide a renewable energy option for water desalination. In this study, a basic plywood solar basin with thermal absorbers installed, was used to desalinate saline water in three cycles with three different salt concentrations (25g/L, 35g/L, 45g/L), and the output of it was desalinated using a three chambered MDC with an anode chamber, cathode chamber, and a middle desalination chamber. The catholyte used was ferricyanide coupled with air cathode, and the anolyte's main component was bacteria extracted from cattle's rumen. The external resistance used in the enrichment was 1000 Ω, 10 Ω, and 1 Ω, and the external resistance used in the desalination cycles was 1Ω. The results showed that solar desalination had an efficiency of 43%, 20%, and 21% respectively. By coupling it with MDC, the removal efficiency increased to 96%, 99%, and 98% respectively. The COD removal was found to be 29.5%, 31.2%, and 31.7%, and the Columbic efficiency was found to be 0.314x10-5 , 0.65x10-5, and 0. 51x10-5. It's recommended to couple microbial desalination with solar desalination to provide potable water specially in countries like Sultanate of Oman which are exposed to high solar radiation that could make it more efficient than other places in the world.
Category
Theses and Dissertations

Same Subject

Theses and Dissertations
4
0
Al-Ghadaniyah, Ohood Mohammed Said.
Sultan Qaboos University.
2024
Journal articles
4
0
Al-Dohaniyah, Nawar Saif.
EDP Sciences.
2018-01-09
Journal articles
3
0
Honnurvali, Mohamed Shaik.
Institution of Engineering and Technology.
2019-02-04
Conferences & workshops
3
0
Qamber, Isa S.
University of Bahrain.
2019-03-01
Journal articles
4
0
Al-Hoqani, Talal Mohammed.
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication.
2019-09-01