Experimental Investigation and Optimization Analysis of a Designed Wastewater Treatment System

Abstract

Wastewater, crude oil, gas, and solid particles are extracted from underground as products during oil production and there are various methods for treating this wastewater. In this study, a corrugated plate treatment system using the gravitational treatment method was designed as a wastewater treatment method. In the designed system, wastewater (oil–water mixture) was treated using uncoated corrugated plates and corrugated plates coated with hydrophobic material. The effects of hole diameter, length, and curvature angle of the corrugated plates; pumping speed of the mixture into the system; mounting angle of the corrugated plate sets; and the distance between the plates on treatment capacity in the case of using coated and uncoated plates were experimentally investigated. In order to statistically examine the effect of the parameters and the hydrophobic material used on the treatment capacity, the relevant parameters were optimized using the response surface method (RSM) and Box–Behnken design. It was observed that there are significant changes in the treatment capacity due to events (flow treatment, decrease in boundary layer thickness, and change in fluid energy). In addition, it was concluded that coating the plates increased the treatment capacity and the mounting angle of the plate sets in the system greatly affected the treatment capacity.