Petroleum hydrocarbons wastewater

Petroleum hydrocarbons, either dissolved, emulsified, or occurring as free-phase, will be the key constitnents, although wastewater may also contain significant concentrations of phenols, amines, amides, alcohols, ammonia, sulfide, heavy metals, and suspended solids. 

Methods based on gravimetric analysis (Table 7.2) are also simple and rapid, but they suffer from the same limitations as those of infrared spectrometric methods (Table 7.2). Gravimetric-based methods may be useful for oily sludge and wastewaters, which will present analytical difficulties for other, more sensitive methods. Immunoassay methods for the measurement of total petroleum hydrocarbon are also popular for field testing because they offer a simple, quick technique for in situ quantification of the total petroleum hydrocarbons. 

Microcat (meaning microbial catalysts) products constitute a bioremediation technology used on wastewaters, sludges, and soils. Microcat products include specialized microbial cultures, nutrients, and surfactants to remediate organic contaminants such as petroleum hydrocarbons. The products used in site remediation include ... 

Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is a commercially available, ex situ technology for the treatment of groundwater, process water, and wastewater contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. The... 

Mycova mycoremediation and mycofiltration are ex situ treatment technologies that use mushrooms to destroy total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and pathogens in contaminated soil, wood debris, wastewater, and surface water. The mushrooms are specially selected, cultured, screened, and preconditioned to treat a specific site s target contaminants. The mushrooms may be added directly to contaminated soil or used as a filter in wastewater and surface water applications. 

For a 1993 study of SFC system applications for treating drain water with an inlet flow of 240 m /day, and an inlet concentration of 30 parts per million (ppm) total petroleum hydrocarbons, the vendor estimated costs at 0.13/m of wastewater treated. The vendor states this cost would be significantly lower than activated carbon treatment of the same waste stream (D11018P, p. 59). 

Van VIeet, E. S. and Quinn, J. G. (1977). Input and fate of petroleum hydrocarbons entering the Providence River and Upper Narragansett Bay from wastewater effluents. Environ. Sci. Technol. 11, 1086-1092. 

In Chapter 1, the determination of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), was discussed in relation to EPA method classifications. This method is of widespread interest in environmental monitoring, particularly as this relates to the evaluation of groundwater or wastewater contamination. There are several specific determinations of individual chemical components related to... 

Determination of Oil and Grease and of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Wastewater via Reversed-Phase Solid-Phase Extraction Techniques (RP-SPE) AND Quantitative Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)... 

Other waste streams, highly contaminated with lower molecular weight molecules, can also be hyperfiltered and concentrated by using alternate chemical membrane types.One example is the hyperfiltration of wastewater from certain oil refining operations containing significant amounts of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX), as well as other petroleum hydrocarbons. 

In general, the most significant process wastewaters from petroleum refining are crude oil desalting waste, storage tank draw-off, steam condensates, spent caustics, spent acids, product losses, and leaks and spills of solvents used in extraction processes. The process wastewaters, which come in direct contact with petroleum hydrocarbons, contain free and emulsified oil, sulfides, phenols, ammonia, BOD, COD, heavy metals, and alkalinity as major waste constituents. 

Eganhouse, R.P., and I.R. Kaplan. 1982. Extractable organic matter in municipal wastewaters. 1. Petroleum hydrocarbons temporal variations and mass emission rates to the ocean. Environmental Science and Technology 16 180-186. 

Since desalting is a closed process, there is little potential for exposure to the feedstock unless a leak or release occurs. However, whenever elevated temperatures are used when desalting sour (sulfur-containing) petroleum, hydrogen sulfide will be present. Depending on the crude feedstock and the treatment chemicals used, the wastewater will contain varying amounts of chlorides, sulfides, bicarbonates, ammonia, hydrocarbons, phenol, and suspended solids. If diatoma-ceous earth is used in filtration, exposures should be minimized or controlled. 

Method 5520D wastewater hydrocarbons. Method D is the method of choice when relatively polar, heavy petroleum fractions are present, or when the levels of nonvolatile greases may challenge the solubility of the solvent. 

Finally, VLLE calculations can sometimes be simplified in systems containing water and hydrocarbons. Because the solubility of hydrocarbons in water is very small, simplified calculations can be made by assuming a pure liquid water phase. Methods exist [4] to estimate the amount of water present in the vapor and dissolved in the liquid hydrocarbon phase. Such a simplification could not be performed if the amount of hydrocarbon in the water were important (for example, if wastewater contamination were a key design variable), but it is often adequate for calculations in petroleum refining. 

Levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs) reported in this work for marine organisms, foodstuffs, sediments, and wastewater streams were found to be in the low ppb range. Data obtained on sediments and shellfish indicate that these PNAs are not petroleum derived but arise from a higher temperature combustion source. This conclusion is based on the alkyl-substituted PNAs measured relative to the parent PNAs. Analytical methods applicable to PNA analysis are almost as varied as the number of laboratories doing-this type of work. This chapter describes the Exxon methods as they apply to various environmental samples. 

Table 27.3 summarizes selected EPA methods, major applications, and limitations of these methods for oil analysis. These EPA methods have been used as routine procedures for determination of volatile and semivolatile aromatic hydrocarbons presented in spilled oil and petroleum product samples. However, these methods were originally designed for measuring a wide variety of discrete industrial chemicals in wastewater and industrial waste. The fundamental shortcoming with these methods is that none of these standard EPA methods can provide information on detailed chemical... 

Polynuclear aromatics are hydrocarbons containing more than one fused benzenoid ring. These substances primarily occur in coal, coal tar, heavy oil, diesel fnel and many petroleum products. They are also found in soils, sediments, solid wastes, many wastewaters, emission from indnstrial boilers and tobacco smoke at trace concentrations. In the PAH class, U.S. EPA has hsted 16 compounds as priority pollutants in potable water and wastewater and 22 componnds in soil and solid wastes. Except naphthalene most PAH compounds have little commercial applications. However, they may be generated from various sources or industrial operations the exposure to which may pose risk to human health. Many PAHs may cause cancers, affecting a variety of tissues. However, only benzo[a]pyrene is a potent human carcinogen, while naphthalene, benzo[a]anthracene. 

Naphthenic acid are most significant environmental contaminants. They are comprised of a large collection of saturated aliphatic and alicyclic carboxylic acids found in hydrocarbon deposits (petroleum, oil sands bitumen, and crude oils). Moreover, they are toxic components in refinery wastewaters and in oil sands extraction waters. In addition, there are many industrial uses for naphthenic acids, so there is a potential for their release to the environment from a variety of activities. Studies have shown that naphthenic adds are susceptible to biodegradation, which decreases their concentration and reduces toxidty. 

---