Petroleum industry produces one of the popular hazardous waste known as Petroleum Sludge. The treatment and disposal of petroleum sludge has created a major challenge in recent years. This review provides insights into various approaches involved in the treatment, and disposal of petroleum sludge. Various methods used in the treatment and disposal of petroleum sludge such as incineration, stabilization/solidification, oxidation, and bio-degradation are explained fully and other techniques utilized in oil recovery from petroleum sludge such as solvent extraction, centrifugation, surfactant EOR, freeze/thaw, pyrolysis, microwave irradiation, electro-kinetic method, ultrasonic irradiation and froth flotation were discussed. The pros and cons of these methods were critically considered and a recommendation for economically useful alternatives to disposal of this unfriendly material was presented.

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The Malaysian palm oil industry is a major revenue earner and the country is ranked as one of the largest producers in the world. However, growth of the industry is synonymous with a massive production of agro-industrial wastewater. As an environmental protection and public health concern, the highly polluting palm oil mill effluent (POME) has become a major attention-grabber. Hence, the industry is targeting for POME pollution abatement in order to promote a greener image of palm oil and to achieve sustainability. At present, most palm oil mills have adopted the ponding system for treatment. Due to the successful POME pollution abatement experiences, Malaysia is currently planning to revise the effluent quality standards towards a more stringent discharge limits. Hence, the current trend of POME research focuses on developing tertiary treatment or polishing systems for better effluent management. Biotechnologically-advanced POME tertiary (polishing) technologies as well as other physicochemical methods are gaining much attention as these processes are the key players to push the industry towards the goal of environmental sustainability. There are still ongoing treatment technologies being researched and the outcomes maybe available in a while. However, the research completed so far are compiled herein and reported for the first time to acquire a better perspective and insight on the subject with a view of meeting the new standards. To this end, the most feasible technology could be the combination of advanced biological processes (bioreactor systems) with extended aeration, followed by solids separation prior to discharge. Chemical dosing is favoured only if effluent of higher quality is anticipated.

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