Using microbes and wastewater to desalinate water.

The technology is based on microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which use microorganisms as catalysts to convert chemical energy to electrical energy. The paper’s authors, including Bruce Logan of Pennsylvania State University and Xiaoxin Cao of Tsinghua University (China), are among the small group of researchers worldwide trying to improve MFCs—or bioelectrochemical systems, as they are beginning to be called—and extend their utility. As it happens, says Logan, he and Cao independently conceived of the same innovation last year: a technology they call a microbial desalination cell (MDC).