Refinery waste water

Fluid catalytic cracking units present formidable emission control problems. Contaminants are present in both reactor product gas and regenerator flue gas. The reactor product contains hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and cyanides, plus combined sulfur and nitrogen in the liquid products. Hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and cyanides are handled as part of the overall refinery waste water cleanup. The combined sulfur and nitrogen may be removed by hydrotreating. 

Phenol has been detected in the effluent discharges of a variety of industries. It was found in petroleum refinery waste water at concentrations of 33.5 ppm (Pfeffer 1979) and 100 ppb (Paterson et al. 1996), in the treated and untreated effluent from a coal conversion plant at 4 and 4,780 ppm, respectively (Parkhurst et al. 1979), and in shale oil waste water at a maximum of 4.5 ppm (Hawthorne and Sievers 1984). It has also been detected in the effluent from a chemical specialties manufacturing plant at 0.01-0.30 ppm (Jungclaus et al. 1978), in effluent from paper mills at 5-8 ppb (Keith 1976 Paterson et al. 1996), and at 0.3 ppm in a 24-hour composite sample from a plant on the Delaware River, 2 and 4 miles downriver from a sewage treatment plant (Sheldon and Hites 1979). 

Ellis, M.M. and Fischer, P.W. Clarifying Oilfield and Refinery Waste Waters by Gas Flotation. JPT (April 1973)... 

Filtration through granular materials to achieve removal of suspended matter and associated materials such as oil is an old concept. It is, however, receiving new attention in many areas in the petroleum industry where there is a concern for improving the quality of injection waters in secondary recovery operations and reducing the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), oil, and suspended solids levels in refinery waste waters. 

The development of mixed-media filtration and its application to oily wastes, including oilfield-produced water, refinery waste water, and other waters containing oil, is reviewed. Several case histories are presented and data show that simple filtration through mixed-media filters can remove essentially all visible oil. 

It was previously mentioned that PDADMAC (Cat-Floe) was the first commercial flocculant approved for potable water [26]. Since then, PDADMAC has been continuously used for coagulation/flocculation both in potable water and waste water treatment. A good example of the performance of PDADMAC in the coagulation of colloidal solids is the reduction of turbidity in fresh water of 150 mg L 1 of Ca(OH)2. A reduction of 82% in turbidity is observed with the addition of only 2 mg L 1 of branched PDADMAC [217]. In addition, PDADMAC and copolymers of DADMAC are reported to be effective in the removal of hard-to-elimi-nate impurities in the water treatment industry. Emulsified impurities from streams of a petroleum refinery waste water and an automotive oily effluent water have been removed by the use of water soluble copolymers consisting essentially of DADMAC and small amounts of anionic acrylic monomers [89]. 

Extraction. Simard et al. (1) previously demonstrated that carbon tetrachloride quantitatively extracts hydrocarbons from refinery waste water. This solvent is advantageous to use because it is transparent to IR in the carbon-hydrogen absorption region of hydrocarbons thus the extract can be measured directly. To demonstrate the suitability of carbon tetrachloride in this method, numerous blends of hydrocarbons in ocean water at concentrations in the range of 5-20 ppb for 3-1. samples were extracted. 

A. Hasbach, Closed Loop System Recycles VOC s from Refinery Waste Water, Pollut. Eng. 

Important sources of PAHs in surface waters include deposition of airborne PAHs (Jensen 1984), municipal waste water discharge (Barrick 1982), urban storm water runoff (MacKenzie and Hunter 1979), runoff from coal storage areas (Stahl et al. 1984 Wachter and Blackwood 1979), effluents from wood treatment plants and other industries (DeLeon et al. 1986 Snider and Manning 1982 USDA 1980), oil spills (Giger and Blumer 1974), and petroleum pressing (Guerin 1978). Brown and Weiss (1978) estimated that 1-2 tons of benzo[a]pyrene were released from municipal sewage effluents and 0.1-0.4 tons of benzo[a]pyrene were released from petroleum refinery waste waters in the United States in 1977. 

Industrial effluents also have elevated PAH levels. Morselli and Zappoli (1988) reported elevated PAH levels in refinery waste waters, with concentrations for most PAHs in the range of 400 ng/L (benzo[b]fluoranthene) to 16,000 ng/L (phenanthrene). In an analysis of STORET data covering the period 1980-88, Staples et al. (1985) reported median concentrations in industrial effluents of <10 g g/L) for 15 PAHs. The number of samples ranged from 1,182 (benzo[b]fluoranthene) to 1,288 (phenanthrene) the percentage of samples in which PAHs were detected ranged from 1.5 (benzo[g,h,i]perylene) to 7.0 (fluoranthene). 

The most well-known example is refinery waste water. 

Table II. Refinery waste water treatment in a nutshell.

E. Yuliwati, A.F. Ismail, T. Matsuura, M.A. Kassim, and M.S. Abdullah. (2011). Effect of modified PVDF hollow fiber submerged ultrafiltration membrane for refinery waste-water treatment, Desalination 283 214-220. 

Chevron WWT [Waste water treatment] An integrated process for treating sour water from oil refineries, particularly for removing ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide. Only physical processes are used—volatilization and condensation under various conditions. Developed by Chevron Research Company and used in 14 plants worldwide in 1985. Martinez, D., in Chemical Waste Handling and Treatment, Muller, K. R., Ed., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1986, 180. 

The valorization of by-products in biomass conversion is a key factor for introducing a biomass based energy and chemistry. There is the need to develop new (catalytic) solutions for the utilization of plant and biomass fractions that are residual after the production of bioethanol and other biofuels or production chains. Valorization, retreatment or disposal of co-products and wastes from a biorefinery is also an important consideration in the overall bioreftnery system, because, for example, the production of waste water will be much larger than in oil-based refineries. A typical oil-based refinery treats about 25 000 t d-1 and produces about 15 000 t d 1 of waste water. The relative amount of waste water may increase by a factor 10 or more, depending on the type of feed and production, in a biorefinery. Evidently, new solutions are needed, including improved catalytic methods to eliminate some of the toxic chemicals present in the waste water (e.g., phenols). 

Petroleum refinery wastes result from processes designed to remove naturally occurring contaminants in the crude oil, including water, sulfur, nitrogen, and heavy metals ... 

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]. 

Ford, D.L. Manning, F.S. Treatment of petroleum refinery wastewater. In Carbon Adsorption Handbook Cheremisinoff, P.N., Ellerbusch, F., Ed. Ann Arbor Science Ann Arbor, Ml, 1978. Patterson, J.W. Industrial Wastewater Treatment Technology, 2nd Ed. Butterworth Boston, 1985. Hutton, D.G. Robertaccio, F.L. Waste water treatment process. U.S. Patent 3,904,518, September 9, 1975. 

PACT can be applied to municipal and industrial waste waters as well as to groundwater and leachates containing hazardous pollutants. PACT has successfully treated various industrial wastewaters, including chemical plant, dye production, pharmaceutical, refinery, and synthetic fuel wastewaters. 

Skimming basin. Oil/water separators ol this design are widely used to treat refinery and petrochemical plant waste waters.1 Similar designs can be found in some oil fields, particularly where large volumes of water must be handled. 

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