Waste Management in the Chemical and Petroleum Industries E-Book

Alireza Bahadori

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 557

Beschreibung

The global chemical and petroleum industries have always had thechallenge of disposing of chemical wastes, by-products, andresiduals, but with traditional techniques such as deep wellinjection and incineration proving flawed, the need for disposal bylegal, safe and economically effective means has never beengreater. Increasingly, the need to produce without pollution is thepreferred model for industry, and the strategy of wasteminimization is seen as the best way forward. This is particularlyrelevant in the petrochemical and chemical industries, where largequantities of hazardous and toxic wastes are produced which canpose formidable disposal problems. Covering the essentials of treatment, recovery and disposal ofwaste, as well as the requirements for process design andengineering of equipment and facilities in the chemical andpetroleum industries, this book includes chapters on: * Wastewater Treatment * Physical Unit Operations * Chemical Treatment * Biological Treatment * Wastewater Treatment in Unconventional Oil and GasIndustries * Wastewater Sewer Systems * Sewage Treatment * Solid Waste Treatment and Disposal Primarily aimed at researchers and advanced students in chemical,petroleum, and environmental fields as well as those in civilengineering, this book should also provide a unique reference forindustry practitioners and anyone interested in chemical andpetroleum waste treatment and disposal.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Biography

Chapter 1: Wastewater Treatment

1.1 Characteristics of Wastewaters

1.2 Treatment Stages

1.3 Treatment Processes

1.4 Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) in Wastewater Systems

Chapter 2: Physical Unit Operations

2.1 Flow Measurement

2.2 Screening

2.3 Comminution

2.4 Grit Removal

2.5 Gravity Separation

2.6 Flow Equalization

2.7 Mixing

2.8 Sedimentation

2.9 Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF)

2.10 Granular-Media Filters

Chapter 3: Chemical Treatment

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Definition and Application

3.3 Chemical Precipitation

3.4 Chemical Flocculation

3.5 Disinfection

3.6 Chlorination

Chapter 4: Biological Treatment

4.1 Theory

4.2 Biological Treatment Processes

4.3 Activated-Sludge Units

4.4 Trickling-Filters

4.5 Rotating Biological Contactor System

4.6 Sewage Oxidation Ponds

Chapter 5: Wastewater Treatment in Unconventional Oil and Gas Industries

5.1 Background

5.2 Toxicity Limitations of Coal Bed Water

5.3 Shale Gas and Coal Seam Gas Produced Water, Treatment and Disposal

5.4 Re-Thinking Technologies for Safer Facing

5.5 Water Treatment for Oil Sands Mining

Chapter 6: Wastewater Sewer Systems

6.1 Stormwater Sewer System

6.2 Oily Water Sewer System

6.3 Non-Oily Water Sewer System

6.4 Chemical Sewer System(s)

6.5 Sanitary Sewer System

6.6 Special Sewer Systems

6.7 Effluent Sources and Disposals

6.8 Particular Effluents in Refinery and Petrochemical Plants

6.9 Petrochemical Plants’ Special Effluents

6.10 NGL, LNG, and LPG Area Effluents

6.11 Gas Treatment Facilities’ Effluents

6.12 Effluents from Terminals, Depots, and Product Handling Areas

6.13 General Considerations and Conditions for Release of Wastes

6.14 Effluent Wastewater Characteristics

6.15 Wastewater Emissions

Chapter 7: Sewage Treatment

7.1 Sewage Effluents

7.2 Methods of Sewage Treatment: General

7.3 Choice of System: General

7.4 Design of Sewage Treatment Plants: General Guidances

7.5 Design of Small Sewage Treatment Plants

7.6 Preliminary Treatment

7.7 Primary and Secondary Settlement Tanks

7.8 Sludge Digesters

7.9 Drying Beds

7.10 Biological Filters

7.11 Activated-Sludge Units

7.12 Tertiary Treatment (Polishing) Processes

7.13 Disposal of Final Effluent

7.14 Advanced Wastewater Treatment

7.15 Effluent Disposal and Reuse

Chapter 8: Solid Waste Treatment and Disposal

8.1 Basic Considerations

8.2 Sludge Handling, Treatment, and Reuse

8.3 Stabilization

8.4 Conditioning

8.5 Disinfection

8.6 Dewatering

8.7 Heat Drying

8.8 Thermal Reduction

8.9 Land Application of Sludge

8.10 Chemical Fixation

8.11 Final Sludge and Solids Conveyance, Storage, and Disposal

8.12 Disposal of Solid Waste

Definitions and Terminology

Bibliography and Further Reading

Index

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bahadori, Alireza.   Waste management in the chemical and petroleum industries / Alireza Bahadori.    1 online resource.  Includes index.  Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed. ISBN 978-1-118-73171-0 (MobiPocket) – ISBN 978-1-118-73172-7 (Adobe PDF) – ISBN 978-1-118-73173-4 (ePub) – ISBN 978-1-118-73175-8 (cloth) (print)  1. Petroleum industry and trade–Waste disposal.  2. Chemical industry–Waste disposal. 3. Petroleum refineries–Waste disposal.  I. Title.  TD899.P4  628.5′1–dc23

2013021840

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 9781118731758 (13 digits)

Dedicated to the loving memory of my Parents, grandparents, and to all who contributed so much to my work over the years.

Preface

Oil and gas are major sources of energy and revenue for many countries today – their production has been described as one of the most important industrial activities in the twenty-first century – and obviously waste treatment and disposal assume a greater degree of importance in the petroleum, chemical processing, and unconventional oil and gas industries.

Wastewater quality and the quantity produced determine the means of disposal and the costs of disposal. Suspended solids, total dissolved solids, and oxygen demand of produced waters have the most impact on wastewater treatment.

Wastewater is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds and the largest byproduct by volume generated during chemical processing and both conventional and unconventional oil and gas recovery operations. The potential of oilfield-produced water to be a source of freshwater for water-stressed oil-producing countries and increasing environmental concerns, in addition to stringent legislations on produced water discharge into the environment, have made produced water management a significant part of the oil and gas business.

In marginally economic coal bed projects, the water disposal costs and attendant environmental accounting are critical factors in the investment decision; water disposal costs can economically make or break a marginal project.

Before investing in a coal bed methane (CBM) process, multiple questions need to be answered concerning the water to be produced – questions concerning quantity, flow-rates, chemical content, disposal means, monitoring, and environmental regulations. Perhaps no other factor affects the economics and feasibility of CBM projects as much as water removal and disposal.

In heavy oil production, between 2 to 4.5 volume units of water are used to produce each volume unit of synthetic crude oil in an ex situ mining operation. Despite recycling, almost all of it ends up in tailings ponds. However, in Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) operations, 90–95% of the water is recycled and about 0.2 volume units of water is used per volume unit of bitumen produced.

A major hindrance to the monitoring of oil sands-produced waters has been the lack of identification of individual compounds present. By better understanding the nature of the highly complex mixture of compounds, including naphthenic acids, it may be possible to monitor rivers for leachate and also to remove toxic components. Such identification of individual acids has for many years proved impossible, but a recent breakthrough in analysis has begun to reveal what is in the oil sands-produced waters.

The extraction and use of shale gas can affect the environment through the leaking of extraction chemicals and waste into water supplies, the leaking of greenhouse gasses during extraction, and the pollution caused by the improper processing of natural gas.

A challenge to preventing pollution is that shale gas extractions vary widely in this regard, even between different wells in the same project; the processes that reduce pollution sufficiently in one extraction may not be enough in another.

Chemicals are added to the water to facilitate the underground fracturing process that releases natural gas. Fracturing fluid is primarily water and approximately 0.5% chemical additives (friction reducer, agents countering rust, agents to kill microorganisms). Since (depending on the size of the area) millions of liters of water are used, this means that hundreds of thousands of liters of chemicals are often injected into the soil.

Only about 50 to 70% of the resulting volume of contaminated water is recovered and stored in above-ground ponds to await removal by tanker. The remaining “produced water” is left in the earth where it can lead to contamination of groundwater aquifers, though the industry deems this “highly unlikely.” However, the wastewater from such operations often leads to foul-smelling odors and heavy metals contaminating the local water supply above-ground.

This book unravels the essential requirements for the process design and engineering of the equipment and facilities pertaining to the wastewater treatment units, solid waste disposal, and wastewater sewer systems of oil and gas refineries, chemical plants, oil terminals, petrochemical plants, unconventional oil and gas industries (coal seam gas or coal bed methane, shale gas and oil sands production), and other facilities as required. Included within the scope are:

Liquid and solid disposal systems.Primary oil/solids removal facilities.Further oil and suspended solids removal (secondary oil/solids removal), such as dissolved air flotation units.Granular media filters and chemical flocculation units.Chemical addition systems.Biological treatments.Filtration and/or other final polishing.Sewage systems handling domestic and medical sanitary appliances of buildings.Drainage systems carrying surface and rainwater.Wastewater gathering systems.Clean water drainage, e.g., from buildings and paved areas.Evaporation ponds and disposal by natural percolation into the subsoil in permeable ground.Sanitary sewage treatment.Sludge handling and treatment.

It is obvious that the aim of any drainage/effluent disposal system should be to segregate uncontaminated water from contaminated water or effluents and to segregate different types of effluents in order to reduce the size, complexity, and costs of any treatment units that may be required for handling the contaminated water and effluents before they are discharged from a unit.

All wastewater effluents from industry that are discharged to public and/or natural water sources or directed for recycling purposes inside the industry, and that may contain a wide variety of matters in solution or suspension, should be controlled according to the requirements imposed by the final destination. However, in any case, elimination of the waste or the hazard potential of the waste should be the ultimate goal in the management.

Under no circumstances should effluent water cause oil traces on the surface or embankments of the receiving water, or affect the natural self-purification capacity of the receiving water to such an extent that it would cause hindrance to other users.

Under no conditions should polluted streams be combined with unpolluted streams if the resultant stream will then require purification. In general, the main sewer systems in the industry will be segregated according to the following categories:

Stormwater sewer systems.Oily water sewer systems.Non-oily water sewer systems.Chemical sewer systems.Sanitary sewer systems.Special sewer systems.

In all areas, including process, offsite, and utility units, provisions should be made to anticipate any of the above mentioned sewer systems as required.

The treatment of wastewaters involves a sequence of treatment steps. Each wastewater treatment process involves the separation of solids from water in at least some part of the operation and the removal of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) to some extent.

The end of pipe treatment sequence can be divided into the following elements: primary or pre-treatment, intermediate treatment, secondary treatment and tertiary treatment plus ancillary, sludge dewatering, and disposal operations.

The key to optimizing the treatment sequence for provision of maximum water treatment at minimum cost is to identify the rule of each unit operation and optimize that operation. Optimizing the performance of specific unit operations, such as API separators, dissolved air flotation, biological treatment, etc., can best be achieved if:

1. The properties of influent streams are considered.

2. The chemical principles that are used in solids pre-treatment are understood.

3. The variety of chemicals available for solids treatment is recognized.

4. The properties of effluent water are established based on the local environmental regulations and final disposal.

5. The protocols for quantifying results are identified.

In general, most industries require water for processing or other purposes; much of this water after use is discharged either to public and/or natural water sources or directed for recycling purposes inside the industry.

Such discharge, which may contain a wide variety of matter in solution or suspension, should be controlled according to the requirements imposed by the final destination and/or environmental regulations.

Moreover, according to the type of plant and the method of plant operation, the sources of solids in a wastewater treatment plant can be uncovered. Solids may also be formed by interaction of waste streams in the sewer.

Wastewaters contain metal ions, such as iron, aluminium, copper, magnesium, and so on, from corrosion of the process equipment, chemicals used in treating cooling water, salts in the water intake, and chemicals used in processing.

Insoluble metal hydroxide floc may be formed when alkaline wastes are discharged and raise the pH of wastewater above neutral. The wastes, containing considerable concentrations of phenols, sulfides, emulsifying agents, and alkalines, should be segregated. In general, discharging any material to the oily sewer system or other drainage system should be investigated in line with the final waste treatment and disposal targets.

In view of the above, this book will unravel the fundamental engineering for waste recovery, treatment, and disposal systems in the petroleum, chemical, and unconventional oil and gas processing industries. These new fundamental discoveries will enable the development of practical solutions to these pressing environmental issues.

Dr. Alireza Bahadori

School of Environment, Science & Engineering, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia

25 July 2013

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Wiley editorial and production team Rebecca Stubbs, Emma Strickland and Sarah Tilley of John Wiley & Sons for their editorial assistance.

Biography

Alireza Bahadori, PhD is a research staff member in the School of Environment, Science & Engineering at Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia. He received his PhD from Curtin University, Western Australia. For the better part of 20 years, Dr Bahadori had held various process engineering positions and involved in many large-scale projects at NIOC, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), and Clough AMEC PTY LTD.

He is the author of over 200 articles and 6 books. His books have been accepted/published by prestigious publishers such as John Wiley & Sons, Springer, Taylor & Francis and Elsevier. Dr Bahadori is the recipient of highly competitive and prestigious Australian Government’s Endeavour International Postgraduate Research award as part of his research in oil and gas area. He also received top-up award from State Government of Western Australia through Western Australia Energy research Alliance (WA:ERA) in 2009. Dr Bahadori Serves as a member of editorial board for a number of journals such as Journal of Sustainable Energy Engineering which is published by Wiley-Scrivener.

1

Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater treatment refers to the treatment of sewage and water used by residences, business, and industry to a sufficient level that it can be safely returned to the environment. It is important to treat wastewater to remove bacteria, pathogens, organic matter, and chemical pollutants that can harm human health, deplete natural oxygen levels in receiving waters, and pose risks to animals and wildlife.

1.1 Characteristics of Wastewaters

A number of chemical and physical characteristics are used to describe wastewater. The most common are:

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). This is a measure of the amount of unstable organic matter in the water. It measures how much oxygen is required by the available microorganisms to break down the readily available organic matter into simpler forms, such as carbon dioxide, ammonia, and water.Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP). These are the sum of all forms of nitrogen and phosphorus in the water, respectively.Fecal microbes (which include viruses, bacteria, and protozoans). These are found in wastewater and may cause disease.Suspended solids, biodegradable organics, nutrients, refractory organics, heavy metals, dissolved inorganic solids, and pathogens are important contaminants that may be found in the oil, gas, and chemical processing industry’s wastewaters. Table 1.1 presents a list of important wastewater contaminants and reasons for their importance.

Table 1.1Contaminant importance in wastewater treatment.

ContaminantsReason for ImportancePhysical suspended solidsSuspended solids are important for esthetical reasons and because they can lead to the development of sludge deposits and anaerobic conditionsChemical biodegradable organicsComposed principally of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, biodegradable organics are measured most commonly in terms of BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand). If discharged untreated to the environment, the biological stabilization of these materials can lead to the depletion of natural oxygen resources and to the development of septic conditions.NutrientsCarbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are essential nutrients for growth. When discharged to the aquatic environment, these nutrients can lead to the growth of undesirable aquatic life. When discharged in excessive amounts on land, they can also lead to the pollution of groundwater.Refractory organicsThese organics tend to resist conventional biological methods of wastewater treatment. Typical examples include surfactants, phenols, and agricultural pesticidesHeavy metalsDue to their toxic nature, certain heavy metals can negatively impact upon biological waste treatment processes and stream life.Dissolved inorganic solidsInorganic constituents, such as calcium, sodium, and sulfate, are added to the original domestic water supply as a result of water use and may have to be removed if the wastewater is to be reused.Biological pathogensCommunicable diseases can be transmitted by the pathogenic organisms in wastewater.

Suspended solids can be removed by physical treatment to some extent. Removal of biodegradable organics, suspended solids, and pathogens is achieved through the secondary treatment operation units.

Table 1.2 shows typical waste compounds classified as priority pollutants. The more stringent rules deal with the removal of nutrients and priority pollutants. When wastewater is to be reused, rules normally include requirements for the removal of refractory organics, heavy metals, and in some case dissolved inorganic solids.

Table 1.2Typical waste compounds classified as priority pollutants.

Name (Formula)ConcernNon-metalsArsenic (As)Carcinogen and mutagen. Long term: sometimes cause fatigue and loss of energy; dermatitis.Selenium (Se)Long term: red staining of fingers, teeth, and hair; general weakness; depression; irritation of nose and mouth.MetalsBarium (Ba)Flammable at room temperature in powder form. Long term: increased blood pressure and nerve block.Cadmium (Cd)Flammable in powder form. Toxic by inhalation of dust or fume. A carcinogen. Soluble compounds of cadmium are highly toxic. Long term: concentrates in the liver, kidneys, pancreas, and thyroid; hypertension suspected effect.