text: MDCs are utilized in seawater desalination by primarily acting as a precursor treatment for electrodialysis (ED) due to the inefficiency in salinity removal due to biofouling and membrane scaling by the complex ion composition. Studies show that efficacy of MDC systems diminish over 5000 hours due to membrane scaling such as calcium and potassium accumulation, increasing ohmic resistance and reducing ion exchange through the membrane. However, by utilizing MDCs as a precursor treatment for electrodialysis, results show that system time is reduced by 25% and energy expenditure decreases by 45.3%. Reduction in external resistance increases desalination efficiency to as high as 74%, as demonstrated in upflow microbial desalination cells (UMDC), but increased membrane scaling on the ion exchange membranes by calcium and magnesium accumulation, resulting in a higher internal ohmic resistance and decrease in overall desalination of seawater. With the application of an osmotic MFC (OsMFC) in conjunction with the UMDC as an initial pretreatment of biosolid removal and desalination, 85% of oxygen demand and approximately 97% of salts was reduced after secondary treatment. Subsequent treatment by traditional BES systems such as electrodialysis can function as a more effective system for desalination, provisioning energy demands by the output energy obtained from the MDC pretreatment.