Modeling and simulation for the sustainable recovery of aromatics (BTX) from petrochemical industrial wastewater.

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Petrochemical wastewater is a major industrial source of pollution that produces a variety of toxic organic and inorganic pollutants, naturally present or added during the process. These pollutants are a serious threat to the soil, water, environment, and human being due to their complex and hazardous nature. Glycols such as monoethylene glycol (MEG), diethylene glycol (DEG), triethylene glycol (TEG), and aromatics (BTX-benzene, toluene, and xylene) are the most common organic impurities present in petrochemical wastewater. The objective of this paper is to recover aromatics and water from petrochemical industrial wastewater. The reclamation process is used to remove inorganic impurities such as heavy metals Fe, Zn, Pb, Mn, Al, Ni, As, Cr, Cu, Cd, and K and salts. In the present work, 1% sodium bi-carbonate (NaHCO3) is used to precipitate the inorganic impurities present in the wastewater at 40°C atmospherically. Aspen Hysys simulation software is used for modeling and simulation for the treatment process using NRTL (non-random-two-liquid) thermodynamic model. The process generated from Aspen Hysys is validated with lab experiments. To support global sustainable development, this study is focused on reducing, reusing, and recycling separation techniques such as centrifuge separation and vacuum distillation have been used. The characterization of regenerated water was performed using ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy) to determine the reduction in heavy metals. It was found that > 99.5% of heavy metals were removed. The regeneration of these aromatics is necessary for economic and environmental reasons so that it can be reused to avoid its disposal in and contamination of natural environments.