**4.2 Operational limitations of MDC technology**

Similar to most bioelectrochemical systems, microbial desalination cell technology faces several problems. These include concentration losses, increase in internal resistance, ohmic losses, challenges with MDC architecture, low microbial activity, low desalination rate, organic matter degradation, electron acceptors, electrical conductivity changes, ion transport, fouling on membranes, membrane integrity, pH change issues, and safety of purified water [58, 60, 61, 63, 65, 70, 90–99].
