Biological Treatment of Platform Waste–Water Using Bench-Scale Trickling Filters

Abstract

The treatment of wastewater from a crude oil platform situated in the shallow offshore of the Atlantic ocean of Nigeria by two standard plants, namely the Wemco Depurator and the Red Fox Treatment Plant have not adequately reduced the levels of oil contaminants and odour to acceptable limits for discharge. A secondary treatment, based on the principles of the trickling filter was therefore investigated to complement the two plants already in operation. A bench-scale trickling filter was assembled and characterized using a mathematical model to understand the effect of hydraulic loading on the dimensionless BOD percentage reduction at various depths of the filter and to determine the operational characteristics of the filter when packed with a plastic medium of specific area 22.96 m 2 /m 3 of bulk volume. The filter was adequately described by the equation O.9 L / D 8 3 O.O e S = where s is the specific reduction in BOD, D is the depth of packing and L is the hydraulic loading.