Integration of biofiltration and advanced oxidation processes for tertiary treatment of an oil refinery wastewater aiming at water reuse

Abstract

The combination of biological and chemical oxidation processes is an interesting approach to remove ready, poor, and non-biodegradable compounds from complex industrial wastewaters. In this study, biofiltration followed by H2O2/UV oxidation (or microfiltration) and final reverse osmosis (RO) step was employed for tertiary treatment of an oil refinery wastewater. Biofiltration alone allowed obtaining total organic carbon (TOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), UV absorbance at 254 nm (UV254), ammonium, and turbidity removal of around 46, 46, 23, 50, and 61 %, respectively. After the combined biological-chemical oxidation treatment, TOC and UV254 removal amounted to 88 and 79 %, respectively. Whereas, the treatment performance achieved with different UV lamp powers (55 and 95 W) and therefore distinct irradiance levels (26.8 and 46.3 mW/cm(2), respectively) were very similar and TOC and UV254 removal rates were highly affected by the applied C/H2O2 ratio. Silt density index (SDI) was effectively reduced by H2O2/UV oxidation, favoring further RO application. C/H2O2 ratio of 1:4, 55 W UV lamp, and 20-min oxidation reaction corresponded to the experimental condition which provided the best cost/benefit ratio for TOC, UV254, and SDI reduction from the biofilter effluent. The array of treatment processes proposed in this study has shown to be adequate for tertiary treatment of the oil refinery wastewater, ensuring the mitigation of membrane fouling problems and producing a final effluent which is suitable for reuse applications.

Treatment of Produced Water with Photocatalysis: Recent Advances, Affecting Factors and Future Research Prospects

“…As discussed in Section 3.1, photocatalysis could not achieve complete removal of TOC from produced water as a stand-alone treatment process. Photocatalysis can be coupled with other treatment processes such as the biological treatment to increase the treatment efficiency of both processes [60,66]. The nonselective reactivity of radicals on the non-biodegradable water-soluble pollutants determines that the photocatalytic process can be used effectively as a pre-treatment step to enhance biodegradation of recalcitrant organic pollutants prior to biological water treatment.…”

Adsorption-Enhanced Ceramic Membrane Filtration Using Fenton Oxidation for Advanced Treatment of Refinery Wastewater: Treatment Efficiency and Membrane-Fouling Control

“…Compared with a single process, a combined process can remove pollutants in wastewater more effectively and make full use of the advantages of various methods and make up for their shortcomings [ 16 ]. After several years of research, some processes [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ] were designed and researched for the treatment of refinery wastewater. According to the previous research, a combined process that consists of an AOP and AC absorption displayed a great effect in the treatment of wastewater [ 25 , 26 ].…”

Treatment of High-Concentration Wastewater from an Oil and Gas Field via a Paired Sequencing Batch and Ceramic Membrane Reactor

“…Compared with physical and chemical technology, biotechnology has become an important research alternative for industrial wastewater treatment due to its low cost and high efficiency. Biological processes have been successfully applied to the treatment of petroleum wastewater [12,13]. For instance, Schneider et al [14] used a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) for such purpose.…”