Bio-electrolysis of petroleum wastewater using microbial fuel cell for energy production

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an encouraging and eco-friendly technology, which converts chemical energy stored in biomass into usable electricity. Petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) is rich in organic contents which is an important parameter for microbial electrolysis promote electron generation within microbial biofilms. Despite various wastewater treatment methods developed, many fall short in terms of cost-effectiveness, energy recovery, and durability. The novelty of this research was to study MFC performance with a bio-electrochemical process provides a cost-effective solution by oxidizing biodegradable organics into electricity and treatment of PRW. Present research emphasizes the potential to generate electricity from PRW, achieving an energy density of 18.03 milliamps (mA) at a chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading of 14,843 mg/L. Results in this study demonstrated the 98.8% COD removal efficiency over 81 days of MFC operation. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis identified the optimal ratio of activated sludge biomass, yielding an anodic current of 1.27 mA and a cathodic potential of − 0.68 mV. This research highlights the promising dual benefits of wastewater treatment and electricity generation through MFC technology.