TREATMENT OF PETROLEUM REFINERY WASTEWATER USING MULTI-STAGE BIOLOGICAL REACTOR

• Main Author: AHMED SALIH, GASIM HAYDER
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/15272/1/2103%20-Treatment%20Of%20Petroleum%20Refinery%20Wastewater%20Using%20Multistage%20Biological%20Reactor.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/15272/

Refining crude oil in petroleum refinery results in relatively large quantities of wastewater. Petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) is highly polluted, hence proper and effective treatment is needed; currently requires multiple treatment processes. Therefore, the need for improved treatment processes never stops. Thinking green, biological treatment is always a cheaper and safer solution for wastewater treatment, as it involves the use of microorganisms to degrade organic matter. This study focused on development of integrated multi-stage biological treatment process for petroleum refinery wastewater. The study consisted of four phases, namely, biodegradability of PRW, PRWtreatability in three configuration of sequencing batch reactors (SBR), degradation of volatile organic compounds in anaerobic-anoxicaerobic SBR and testing of multi-stage biological reactor (MSBR) under different loads. PRW was found to be biodegradable in a 28-day batch study, with more than 95% COD removal in 24 hr under aerobic mode and 9 days under anaerobic mode. Three SBR configurations (aerobic, anaerobic-aerobic and aerobic with PRW and domestic wastewater mixed influent) were operated in parallel to determine the most effective configuration and reaction time.