Characterization of Petroleum Sludge from Refinery Industry Biological Wastewater Treatment Unit

Abstract

Thermal plasma technique is becoming prominent in the treatment of variety of waste ranging from municipal solid waste, incinerator residue, hospital waste, electronics waste and industrial sludge. Application of the new treatment technology to petroleum sludge requires information on the nature and characteristics of the sludge that will be use to optimize the treatment system. In this investigation, petroleum sludge obtained from Petronas Melaka was characterized for its physical and chemical features. Proximate and ultimate analysis as well as determination of elemental composition were carried out. The sludge was found to contain high moisture (78.91%), low ash (5.06%), low volatiles (5.52%) and high fixed carbon (10.51%). The sludge has a TOC of 54.48% and HHV of 23.599MJ/kg. Despite the high moisture content, the higher heating value (HHV) is high when compared to literature values. The high value of HHV may be associated with the high fixed carbon, low ash content and high value of TOC. The apparent density of the sludge is slightly lower. Fourteen heavy metals are detected in significant quantities. Proper waste management that will safely dispose the sludge is required. The waste disposal technique should take into cognizant the possibility of leaching of heavy metals into ground water on one hand and the gasification of lighter ones as exhaust gas on the other.

Removal of Oil and Heavy Metals from Oily Sludge using Esterquat Surfactant via Surfactant-Enhanced Oil Recovery (SEOR)

“…In addition, higher moisture content yields more residue because of poor heat transfer to the inner surfaces that leads to a low average particles temperature. The percentage of volatile matter in COS observed was 32.22 wt% which indicates significant of oil content to be recovered in the raw COS sample [11]. However, the absorbance of RB4 increased as esterquat surfactant concentration increased from 100 mg/L to 200 mg/L.…”

“…Characterization of raw COS via Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The proximate analysis was conducted gravimetrically by using Thermogravimetric Analyzer (Mettler Toledo TGA/SDTA851) to determine the moisture, volatile matter, ash and fixed carbon content in oily sludge sample [10], [11]. The purified nitrogen was used at temperature range from 30 to 600C whereas the purified compressed air was used at temperature varied from 600 to 1000C as purge gas.…”

Inhibition of the metabolism of mixed cultures of purple phototrophic bacteria by typical refinery and petrochemistry wastewater pollutants

“…), sulfide, ketones, amines, inorganic salts, transition metals, benzene-derivatives, phenols and other monoaromatic hydrocarbons. 4 The average composition range of RPWW can be found in Supporting Information Table S1. This composition makes RPWW discharge a high environmental risk, and necessitates its proper treatment.…”

Characterization Study of Petroleum Oily Sludge Produced from North Refineries Company Baiji to Determine the Suitability for Conversion into Solid Fuel

“…Moreover, release high quantities of carbon dioxide polluting the environment [6]. Oily sludge cannot be disposed to the landfill, even if it is remediated [15] [16] has been reported the characterization of oily sludge sample from Petronas in Melaka Malaysia the density was found 1.08 g/ml, the black oily sludge has 78.91% moisture, 5.06% ash, 5.52% volatile matter, and 10.51% fixed carbon. Despite the high moisture content, the dried sludge has a higher heating value (HHV) of 23.599 MJ/kg.…”