Abstract: Waste water generation in the petroleum refineries and the stringent environmental disposal regulations have called for an intensive waste water management. This study is aimed at finding appropriate way of minimizing waste water generation in the refineries. For this purpose, a typical refinery which utilizes 40.5 te/hr of fresh water in its three basic operations (Distillation, Hydrodesulphurizer and Desalter) was chosen and studied based on single and multiple containment approaches. These methods established that the amount of fresh water required for an operation in the refinery is dependent on the mass transfer of the chosen key reference contaminant. Three key containments, namely H2S, oil and suspended solids where chosen and analysed. The study achieved the aim of simultaneously minimizing both the fresh water consumption and the effluent waste water generation via maximization of the internal water reuse in the operations. The results showed that there is about 37% and 15.4% reduction in waste water generation based on the single and multiple contaminant approaches respectively. The tools applied here are based on the principle of mass transfer.
Keywords: Waste Water Generation, Petroleum Refineries, Stringent Environmental.
Title: Investigation of Opportunity for Waste Water Minimization in Petroleum Refinery Using Pinch Technology
Author: Okafor, I. I., Bassey, E. N
International Journal of Mathematics and Physical Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-5736 (Online)
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