To improve the flexibility of microbial desalination cell (MDC) construction and operation, a new configuration with decoupled anode and cathode was developed and examined in this study. A higher salt concentration resulted in higher current generation, as well as a higher salt removal rate. The effect of the distance between the anode and the cathode on the MDC performance was not obvious, likely due to a sufficient conductivity in the salt solution. Because the cathode was identified as a limiting factor, adding one more cathode unit increased the current generation from 723 to 116.0 A/m(3), while installing additional anode units did not obviously alter the MDC current production. Changing the position of the anode/cathode units exhibited a weak influence on the MDC performance. Parallel connection of electrical circuits generally produced more current than the individual connections, and a strong competition was observed between multiple units sharing the same opposite unit. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.