Phenols Removal From Refinery Wastewater By Advanced Oxidation Process (AOPs): From Laboratory Scale To Industrial One

Abstract

AbstractAdavanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) represent a group of promising technologies for the degradation of Refractory Chemical Pollutants as, for example, Chlorophenols (CPs) compounds of a special interest because of their high toxicity and low biodegradability. The aim of this paper is the application of AOPs treatments on a real case study consisting in the design of an Industrial-scale refinery effluent treatment & recovery plant. The water portion generated which was not recycled, had to be discharged into the sea with very strict limits (i.e. phenol concentration < 1 ppb).For this purpose, two different AOPs treatments were investigated on a lab scale: the combination of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with a liquid catalyst and the adoption of H2O2 in combination with UV light. In particular, the degradation kinetics of both the treatments investigated was evaluated at different concentrations of both liquid catalyst and hydrogen peroxide.The results showed that the system resulting from the combination of H2O2 with a liquid catalyst into a specific H2O2/catalyst range allowed a higher phenol degradation kinetics than the treatment based on hydrogen peroxides coupled with UV light. Once the AOP treatment was optimized on a laboratory scale, the design for its adoption on an industrial scale was conducted and the system was integrated as a tertiary treatment in a wastewater system including Coalescent Plate Interceptors (CPI) and Flotation as Deoiling treatment and a Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) Oxidation system as a biological treatment.