Refinery waste management

Petroleum refineries must retrofit surface impoundments that are used for hazardous waste management. Retrofitting must involve the use of double liners and leak detection systems. 

Take the example of a 130,000 bpd West Coast refinery that generates approximately 50,000 tons per year of hazardous waste [19]. Since 1984, this refinery has initiated waste management practices to handle ... 

Copa, W.M. Dietrich, M.J. Wet oxidation of oils, oil refinery sludges, and spent drilling muds. Proceedings of Oil Waste Management Alternatives Symposium, California Dept, of Health Services Oakland, California, April, 1988. 

Escardino, A., Amoros, J. L., Moreno, A. Sanchez, E. 1995. Utilizing of the used catalyst from refinery FCC units as a substitute for kaolin in formulating ceramic frits. Waste Management Research, 13, 569-577. 

Cohen, Y., Allen, D. X, Blewitt, D. N., and Klee, H. A Multimedia Emissions Assessment of the Amoco Yorktown Refinery, prevented at the 84th Annual Air and Waste Management Association meeting, Vancouver, Canada, June 17, 1991. 

Smith, R., E. A. Petela, 1991-1992, Waste minimisation in process industries. The Chemical Engineer (UK), ibid. 1. The problem, 24-25, Oct. 1991, ibid. 2. Reactors. 17-23, Dec. 1991, ibid 3. Separation and recycle systems, 24-28 Febr. 1992, ibid 4. Process operations, 21-23, April 1992, ibid 5. Utility waste, 32-35, July, 1992 Towler, G. P., R. Mann, A. J. Serriere, C. M. D. Gabaude, 1996, Refinery hydrogen management cost analysis of chemically-integrated facilities, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 35 (78), 2378-2388... 

Landfill leachate or gas condensate derived from listed waste. Landfill leachate and landfill gas condensate derived from previously disposed wastes that now meet the listing description of one or more of the petroleum refinery listed wastes would be regulated as a listed hazardous waste. However, U.S. EPA temporarily excluded such landfill leachate and gas condensate from the definition of hazardous waste provided their discharge is regulated under the CWA. The exclusion will remain effective while U.S. EPA studies how the landfill leachate and landfill gas condensate are currently managed, and the effect of future CWA effluent limitation guidelines for landfill wastewaters. 

The sources of wastewater generation in petroleum refineries have been discussed previously in this chapter. Table 5 presents a qualitative evaluation of wastewater flow and characteristics by fundamental refinery processes [5]. The trend of the industry has been to reduce wastewater production by improving the management of the wastewater systems. Table 6 shows waste-water loadings and volumes per unit fundamental process throughput in older, typical, and newer technologies [15]. Table 7 shows typical wastewater characteristics associated with several refinery processes [16]. 

For a waste minimization program to succeed, refinery managers must provide the necessary staff and other resources to accomplish their goals. A team committed to the tasks is usually assembled. Because a refinery is a complex facility and there are numerous emission sources and waste streams to take into account, the team should consider and give the highest priority to ... 

Pavel Skryja, MS, currently works as a consultant for industrial power burners and combustion equipment. He holds a degree in process engineering from Brno University of Technology. He has more than seven years of experience as a project manager and designer in research and development of industrial power burners designed for refineries and special installations. He cooperates with Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic) on research of renewable liquid fuels and liquid waste combustion. 

It is a fact that the treatment of industrial waste leater and cooling water has become an ever-present concern for managers in industry. This is particularly true for managers of oil refineries and petrochemical facilities. 

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