A high level of chemical energy is contained in petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW). In this study, the performance of microbial fuel cell (MFC) treating PRW is investigated in various MFC reactor configurations by studying the removal rate of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from wastewater and the generation of electricity. The effect of different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) with a selected external resistance and the effect of catholyte of different pHs were investigated in batch and continuous mode of operations using single chamber and dual chamber MFCs. The results of continuous modes of operation in dual-chamber MFC indicated that the efficiency of COD removal in treating PRW reached 84.40 %. The bioelectricity generation in terms of voltage and current output of MFC was observed to be higher in continuous mode dual chamber operation with cathodic aeration. The highest obtained cell voltage of 762 mV and the highest volumetric power density of 328.26 mW/m³ were reached in continuously operated dual-chamber MFC at HRT of 16 h. The highest current density obtained was 79.2 mA/m². This study indicates that the performance of MFC treating PRW is promising and continuous mode can be employed for treating PRW with simultaneous generation of electricity.

炼油厂废水 (PRW) 中含有大量化学能。在这项研究中，通过研究废水中化学需氧量 (COD) 的去除率和发电量，研究了在各种 MFC 反应器配置中微生物燃料电池 (MFC) 处理 PRW 的性能。使用单室和双室 MFC 以分批和连续操作模式研究了具有选定外部电阻的不同水力停留时间 (HRT) 的影响以及不同 pH 值的阴极电解液的影响。双室MFC连续运行模式的结果表明，处理PRW的COD去除效率达到84.40%。在具有阴极曝气的连续模式双室操作中，观察到 MFC 的电压和电流输出方面的生物发电量更高。获得的最高电池电压为 762 mV，最高体积功率密度为 328.26 mW/m在 16 小时的 HRT 下，在连续运行的双室 MFC 中达到^{3 。}获得的最高电流密度为 79.2 mA/m ²。该研究表明，MFC 处理 PRW 的性能是有前景的，并且可以采用连续模式处理 PRW 并同时发电。