Treatment of complex petroleum refinery wastewater: current technologies and future prospects

The growing production of petroleum refinery wastewater poses a serious threat to water quality. Petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) is a complex cocktail of pollutants, including hydrocarbons, sulfides, ammonia, oils, and heavy metals. Due to their toxic and persistent nature, it's crucial to address PRW with efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly technologies. This review provides a comprehensive overview of petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW), including its characteristics from different refinery units and various treatment strategies and methods. A segregated approach is proposed to treat PRW from crude desalting, sour water, spent caustic, and oily wastewater sources. Combined treatment systems, such as ozonation with moving bed biofilm reactors or photocatalysis with packed bed biofilm reactors, are promising for treating low biodegradability PRW (BOD۵/COD < ۰.۲). The review considers economic factors, toxicity, and biodegradability while highlighting research gaps and future directions. By understanding these aspects, we can effectively implement the proposed PRW treatment systems.

کلیدواژه ها:

Petroleum refinery wastewater ، Segregated approach ، Combined treatment system ، Treatment methods