Desalination combined with copper(II) removal in a novel microbial desalination cell

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An FMDC can be an efficient method for desalination of brackish water with the additional function of copper(II) removal. The synthetic wastewater containing copper(II) in the cathode could accept electrons produced by a biofilm in the anode chamber, and the copper(II) was reduced to Cu2O/Cu. The AEM next to the cathode chamber could prevent the transfer of copper(II) to other chambers. The results obtained from the present study will enable the development of a more efficient and sustainable process for both desalination and heavy metal wastewater treatment. Point C wt.%a C O Cl Cu as reported by Yu et al. [24]. So it could be speculated that the particles are Cu2O produced as the copper was reduced. Compared to points A and B, the atomic percentage of Cu at point C was much higher than that of O, which indicated that there may exist a mixture of pure Cu and Cu2O. In the work of Ter Heijne et al. [21], the authors controlled the pH at approximately 3.0 in the MFC which was separated by a bipolar membrane for copper reduction, they found by XPS analysis only pure copper precipitated on the cathode surface without trace crystals of either CuO or Cu2O.