BIOELECTROCHEMICAL TREATMENT MECHANISMS OF PETROLUME REFINERY WASTEWATER IN INTEGRATED SYSTEM OF MICROBIAL FUEL CELL-CONSTRUCTED WETLAND

Hussain & Ismail

doi:10.36103/ijas.v51i6.1186

Abstract

Three identically designed systems named designate as MFC-CW, CW1,and CW2 were constructed and setup in this study for simultaneous biotreatment of real petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) and bioelectricity generation. The three systems were planted with emergent wetland plant of Canna indica. These systems were operated simultaneously in a single batch mode to identify the dominant mechanism for organics removal from PRW. The operation period for each cycle was 8 days. Results demonstrated that maximum removal efficiency of the organic content represented as chemical oxygen demand (COD) were 96.5%, 89.3%, and 91% observed in MFC-CW, CW1, and CW2, respectively, whereby, the highest power generated in MFC-CW only was 12.36 mW/m2. The potential convergence of the results in the three systems indicated that the dominant mechanism of organic content removal from PRW was via bioelectrochemical reactions by the anodic biofilm in the MFC.

Highlights

Three identically designed systems named designate as Microbial fuel cells (MFCs)-constructed wetlands (CWs), CW1,and CW2 were constructed and setup in this study for simultaneous biotreatment of real petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) and bioelectricity generation
Conventional wastewater treatment plants currently consumes a significant amount of electricity [16]
Experimental procedure After inoculation, the three systems; MFCCW, CW1, and CW2 were operated in a batch mode at a period of 8 days

Summary

Introduction

Three identically designed systems named designate as MFC-CW, CW1,and CW2 were constructed and setup in this study for simultaneous biotreatment of real petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) and bioelectricity generation. The three systems were planted with emergent wetland plant of Canna indica These systems were operated simultaneously in a single batch mode to identify the dominant mechanism for organics removal from PRW. The potential convergence of the results in the three systems indicated that the dominant mechanism of organic content removal from PRW was via bioelectrochemical reactions by the anodic biofilm in the MFC. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can exploit a variety of soluble or dissolved complex organic waste/wastewater as substrate to fulfill renewable electricity generation along with simultaneous waste remediation [8, 23]. The integration of CWs with a microbial fuel cell (MFC) technologies shows promise as a new type of wastewater treatment, which is considered to be an economical and effective way of harvesting bioenergy [32].

Objectives

Findings

Methods