Refinery effluent

A 6000 m3 aqueous refinery effluent containing sulfides and traces of hydrocarbons was to be treated to remove sulfides before discharge. Aqueous ferric chloride was added, followed by 1800 1 of 50 wt% peroxide added over 40 min, and after a further 30 min an explosion occurred which blew off the lid of the treatment vessel. This was attributed to ignition of the explosive mixture of hydrocarbon vapours and oxygen (from iron-catalysed decomposition of peroxide) formed above the liquid surface. 

Kramer, J. Driessen, W. L. Koch, K. R. Reedijk, J. Highly selective extraction of platinum group metals with silica-based (poly)amine ion exchanges applied to industrial metal refinery effluents. Hydrometallurgy 2002, 64, 59-68. 

Fernandez, M. and J. L Haridon. 1994. Effects of light on the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of benzo[a]pyrene and an oil refinery effluent in the newt. Environ. Molec. Mutagen. 24 124-136. 

Parrott, J.L. Backus, S.M. Botgmatm, A.I. Swyripa, M. 1999, The use of semipermeable membrane devices to concentrate chemicals in oil refinery effluent on the Mackenzie River. Arctic 52 125-138. 

Burks, S.L. Evaluation of the effectiveness of granular activated carbon adsorption and aquaculture for removing toxic compounds from treated petroleum refinery effluents, Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory. U.S. EPA Report 600/2-81-067, 1981. 

Tapp, J.F. Williams, B.R.H. An Assessment of the Application of Acute Toxicity Testing for the Monitoring and Control of Oil Refinery Effluents Conservation Clean Air and Water Europe Brussels, Belgium, CONCAWE Report No. BL/A/2894, 1986 96 pp. 

Forty-five priority pollutants are manufactured as final or intermediate materials 15 of these are manufactured at single refineries. Benzene, ethylbenzene, phenol, and toluene are manufactured by at least 10% of all refineries. Of all refineries, 8% manufacture cyanides, while more than 20% manufacture benzene and toluene. Hence, priority pollutants are expected to be present in refinery wastewaters. The EPA s short-term and long-term sampling programs conducted later detected and quantified 22 to 28 priority pollutants in refinery effluent samples [5]. 

Presently there are no EPA pretreatment standards for the oil and gas extraction (oilfield) point source category. The EPA pretreatment standards for discharge from existing and new petroleum refining facilities to publicly owned treatment works include 100 mg/L each for oil and grease (O G) and ammonia (as N). For new facilities a total chromium concentration of 1 mg/L for the cooling tower discharge part of the refinery effluent is also required (40 CPR Part 419). 

Historically, refinery cyanide control was not a concern because cyanide levels in refinery effluent were usually much lower than those in wastewaters from metal finishing and plating industries. Regulatory agencies have now established new and more stringent cyanide effluent limits for most wastewater discharges. One example is the cyanide effluent limit of 0.025 mg/L (as total cyanide) in the San Francisco Bay imposed by the California Water Resources Control Board [60]. 

Figure 19 Bay area refinery effluent treating block flow diagram. This refinery has a complicated wastewater treatment scheme because of the toxicity characteristics rule to separate streams with higher benzene concentrations for treatment in aboveground biotreater. (From Ref. 72.)...

Wong, D.C.L. van Compemolle, R. Nowlin, J.G. O Neal, D.L. Johnson, G.M. Use of supercritical fluid extraction and fast ion bombardment mass spectrometry to identify toxic chemicals from a refinery effluent adsorbed onto granular activated carbon. Chemosphere 1996, 32, 621. 

Cardwell TJ, Hamilton IC, McCormick MJ, et al. 1986. Determination of alkylphenols in refinery effluents by liquid chromatography using electrochemical detection. Environ Anal Chem 24 23-35... 

M. A. Bezerra, A. L. B. Conceicao and S. L. C. Ferreira, Doehlert matrix for optimisation of procedure for determination of nickel in saline oil-refinery effluents by use of flame atomic absorption spectrometry after preconcentration by cloud-point extraction. Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 378(3), 2004, 798-803. 

Other sources of silver release to surface waters include textile plant wastewater effluent (Rawlings and Samfield 1979) petroleum refinery effluents (Snider and Manning 1982) and quench water and fly ash scrubber water efflunents from municipal incinerators (Law and Gordon 1979). Silver was detected in 7 of 58 (12%) samples from the National Urban Runoff Program survey (Cole et al. 

The Hypro process is a continuous catalytic method (Figure 10-3) for hydrogen manufacture from natural gas or from refinery effluent gases. The process is designed to convert natural gas ... 

Hypro process a continuous catalytic method for hydrogen manufacture from natural gas or from refinery effluent gases. 

Sherry, J.P., Scott, B.F., Nagy, V. and Dutka, B.J. (1994) Investigation of the sublethal effects of some petroleum refinery effluents, Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Health 3 (2), 129-137. 

Sherry, J.P, Scott, B.F and Dutka, B. (1997) Use of various acute, sublethal and early life-stage tests to evaluate the toxicity of refinery effluents, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 16 (11), 2249-2257. 

Carmen, C., Teodosiu, M., Kennedy, M.D., Van Straten, H.A. and Schippers, J.C. (1999) Evaluation of secondary refinery effluent treatment using ultrafiltration membranes. Water Resources, 33 (9), 2172-2180. 

CONCAWE [621] recommended methods described by the Environmental Protection Agency for the determination of PAHs in oil refinery effluents. The method involves extraction of the effluent with methylene dichloride followed by clean-up procedures followed by gas chromatography or liquid chromatography. 

BioMeteq A biological process for removing trace metals from oil refinery effluents. The effluent is passed upward through a continuous sand filter. A biofilm of bacteria on the sand particles reduces and precipitates the metals. An air blast scours the precipitates from the sand, which is washed and returned to the process. Developed by Paques BV, the Netherlands, and piloted in Germany in 2005 for removing uranium and selenium. 

During low-flow conditions, oil refineries contribute up to 75% of the total selenium load entering San Francisco Bay. Refineries processing oil derived from the neighboring San Joaquin Valley, California, produce effluent containing selenium concentrations an order of magnitude greater than those in refinery effluent from Alaskan North Slope crude oil (Zawislanski and Zavarin, 1996). 

Knap A. H. and Williams P. J. L. (1982) Experimental studies to determine the fate of petroleum hydrocarbons in refinery effluent on an estuarine system. Environ. Sci. Technol. 16, 1-4. 

Ungazetted. POME, palm oil mill effluent PORE, palm oil refinery effluent OIE, oleochemical industrial effluent. Standard A or B depends on locations. 

The characteristics of palm oil refinery effluent vary according to the type of refinery operation (chemical or physical refining, fractionation process, etc.), process control, and housekeeping program. It is quite difficult to derive general characteristics for raw effluent. Therefore the choice of treatment system will depend very much on the complexity of the raw effluent, i.e., its flow and characteristics. 

There has been very little publication/information on the treatment of palm oil refinery effluent. Osenga (41) introduced a treatment process consisting of a cross flow interceptor (CFl) for oil separation, physical and chemical treatment, and air flotation units to remove the floes followed by a batchwise activated sludge process for the liquid effluent treatment. This process also requires close supervision in order to achieve the desired treatment efficiency. 

Chin and Wong (74) attempted to treat palm oil refinery effluent by conventional activated sludge process with limited success. The treated effluent was highly colored with over 800 Hazen units. 

Sequencing Batch Reactor—A New Treatment Process for Palm Oil Refinery Effluent. Since the early 1970s, an alternative aerobic process called the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) has gained much popularity in the treatment of various types of wastewaters. It is very similar to the old fill and draw (batch) system. There are essentially five modes of operation in the SBR process fill, react, settle, draw, and idle. 

Characteristics of Palm Oil Refinery Effluent. Table 38 shows the characteristics of the effluent from a typical palm oil refinery employing a physical refining process. The effluent is slightly milky and is acidic in nature. It can be seen that the characteristics of the effluent vary quite widely. Nutrient (N and P) contents seem to be sufficient for biological process according to BOD N P of 100 5 1 ratio. It contains low suspended solids and fatty matter, which are mainly dirt and free oil from washwater and oil spillage. 

This work began in late 1970 at a time when the concentration of hydrocarbons in ocean water was generally unknown. Initially we attempted to apply the method of Simard et aL (1) to samples of ocean water. However, this method, which had ample sensitivity for ppm concentrations in refinery effluent water, was not sensitive enough to measure hydrocarbons in ocean water at the ppb (wt) level. Another problem was the presence of interfering organics such as acids and esters. These problems defined the requirements of the analytical method. By now, there are a number of papers to confirm the nature of this problem (2, 3,4,5). 

Petroleum Refinery Effluent Regulations and Guidelines, Rep. EPS l-WP-74-1. Water Pollution Control Directorate, Ottawa, 1974. 

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