RESUMO
Petroleum refineries generate large amounts of oily sludge which is normally loaded with different residual hazardous petroleum derivatives. Also, the residential complexes affiliated to the petroleum refineries generate considerable volumes of sewage. This study was devoted to investigate the potential of energy recovery from co-bioelectrochemical treatment of petroleum refinery oily sludge (PROS) and sewage using a tubular dual-chambers microbial fuel cell (MFC). Initially, the MFC was operated in a fill and draw mode of 4 cycles, each cycle at a different organic load (OL). The results revealed that maximum removal efficiencies of the organic content as COD were 93.67%, 98.57%, 99.64%, and 99.74%, whereby maximum power outputs were 225 ± 10, 324 ± 7, 1230 ± 18, and 1156 ± 14 mW/m3 for cycle1of OL1 (1138 ± 60 mg/L), cycle2 of OL2 (7000 ± 75 mg/L), cycle3 of OL3 (13,890 ± 50 mg/L), and cycle4 of OL4 (17,100 ± 150 mg/L), respectively. Based on those promising results, the MFC was operated continually for 60 days by feeding the MFC with PROS and sewage at organic loading of 13,000 ± 1000 mg/L. Significant results concerning COD and TPH elimination efficiency > 99.85% and 94.12%, respectively were obtained associated with power output of 1225 ± 25 mW/m3.
