This study investigates the use of hard coal as an adsorbent for removal of mineral oil from wastewater. In order to determine the efficiency of hard coal as an adsorbent of mineral oil, process parameters such as sorption capacity (in static and dynamic conditions), temperature, pH, contact time, flow rate, and chemical pretreatment were evaluated in a series of batch and continuous flow experiments. There were significant differences in the mineral oil removal for various pH values examined. The adsorption of mineral oil increased as pH values diverged from 7 (neutral). At lower temperatures, the adsorption was notably higher. The wastewater flow rate was adjusted to achieve optimal water purification. Equilibrium was reached after 10 h in static conditions. At that time, more than 99% of mineral oil had been removed. At the beginning of the filtering process, the adsorption rate increased rapidly, only to show a minor decrease afterwards. Equilibrium data were fitted to Freundlich models to determine the water-hard coal partitioning coefficient. Physical adsorption caused by properties of the compounds was the predominant mechanism in the removal process.

The Serbian E-PRTR register (The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) was established in 2007 and harmonized with PRTR protocol of Arhus convention and E-PRTR directive. In this paper, the quality of 2009 data reported to the Serbian PRTR register was analyzed. The analysis includes 37 large combustion plants with the capacity equal or greater than 50 MW. The combustion plants include power plants, heating plants and industrial energy units. The calculation is done using EMEP/EEA 2009 methodology and Tier 2 approach. The analysis obtained presents an overview of the quality of the reported data for SOx, NOx and TSP emissions for 61 combustion units e.g. emitters (stacks). The results show that all 61 emitters reported data with the deviation greater than 25%, with 55% of the emitters reporting data that differed from pollutant to pollutant in comparison to the estimated data. Out of those, 30% of the emitters reported smaller and 8% reported greater emissions than estimated emissions with 7% of the emitters not submitting any emissions data. The analysis also includes calculation of the emissions scope limit within 95% confidence interval. According to these results, it can be concluded that only 15% of the emitters have emission levels that fall within the scope limits, 47% of the emitters reported data of which two data fall within the scope limits, 28% of the emitters reported data of which only one data fall within the scope limits, 3% of the emitters had data that didn’t fall within the scope limits, and 7% did not reported any emission data. The results of the analysis can be summarized as: 1) operators in facilities do not know how to calculate emissions from their sources, and 2) the application of global emission factors can lead to considerable errors. The main reasons for significant deviation are different fuel quality, type of technical units and human error, thus national emission factors should be developed

The introduction of environmental legislation improvement for industrial producers in Serbia, notably the Integrated Pollution Prevention Control (IPPC) license, will oblige the industrial producers to provide annual report on the pollutant emissions into the environment, as well as to pay certain environment fee. Wastewater treatment plant can be a significant source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) diffuse emissions, which are difficult to measure directly. In the near future reporting obligations might expend to benzene and other VOCs. This paper deals with gaseous emissions calculations from API separator based on the emission factors and the adequate software applications. The analyzed results show that the estimated emission values differ depending on the applied method. The VOC emissions have been estimated using US EPA and CONCAWE emissions factors. The calculated emissions range from 40 to 4500 tons/year for oil refinery WWTP of 2,000,000 m3/year. The calculations of benzene and toluene emissions have been performed using three methods: US EPA emission factors, WATER9, and Toxchem+ software. The calculated benzene and toluene emissions range from 5.5-60 and 0.7-20 tons/year, respectively. The highest emission values were obtained by the US EPA emission factors, while the lowest values were the result of Toxchem+ analysis. The sensitivity analysis of obtained results included the following parameters: flow, temperature, oil content, and the concentration of benzene and toluene in the effluent. Wide range of results indicates the need for their official interpretation for the conditions typical for Serbia, thus establishing adequate national emission factors for future utilization of the “polluter pays principle” on the VOC and benzene emissions