Treatment of Simulated Petrochemical Wastewater by Continuous Electrocoagulation/Ultrafiltration Process

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Treatment of Simulated Petrochemical Wastewater
by Continuous Electrocoagulation/Ultrafiltration
Process
Presenter Mahmood Siddiqui
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Presentation Outline

• Introduction to the process
• Objectives of research
• Methodology
• Conclusion

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Petrochemical Wastewater

• Petrochemical wastewater is considered to be
  complex and hard to treat.
• Characteristics highly industry specific.
• Typical refinery wastewater characteristics used
  in the study.

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Three Phases of Pollutants

• Suspended solids and colloids.
• Immiscible
• Dissolved (organic and inorganic).

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Electrocoagulation

• Involves the generation of in-situ coagulants by
  electrically dissolving either aluminum or iron
  ions.

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Benefits of Electrocoagulation

• EC requires simple equipment and is easy to
  operate.
• Sludge formed by EC tends to be readily settable
  and easy to de-water, because it is composed of
  mainly metallic oxides/hydroxides.
• It removes the smallest colloidal particles,
  because the applied electric field sets them in
  faster motion, thereby facilitating the
  coagulation.
• EC produces effluent with less total dissolved
  solids (TDS) content as compared with chemical
  treatments.

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Membrane Processes

• Reverse Osmosis
• Nanofiltration
• Ultrafiltration
• Microfiltration

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Ultrafiltration

• A membrane separation process, driven by a
  pressure gradient, in which the membrane
  separates components of a liquid larger than a
  specific molecule size.

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Advantages of Ultrafiltration

• Consistent water quality.
• Low lifecycle cost through optimized energy use
  and minimum chemical requirements.
• Compact design resulting in small system
  footprint

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Objectives

• Combined use of electrocoagulation and
  ultrafiltration processes has not yet been tested
  for petrochemical wastewater.
• Continuous flow has also not been tested for
  Electrocoagulation process.

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Experimental Setup
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Experimental Setup
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Experimental Setup
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Experiments (1-16)
Experimental Parameters Current Density 5, 15,
30, 50 mA/cm2 Contact Time 5, 10, 20, 30 minutes
No Electrolyte
Phenol 75 ppm Oil 10 ppm SS 100 ppm
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Experiments 17 18
Experimental Parameters Optimum combination of
Current Density and Contact Time from first 16
experiments.
Electrolyte 1 and 3 gm
Phenol 75 ppm Oil 10 ppm SS 100 ppm
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Experiments 19 24
Experimental Parameters Optimum combination of
Current Density, Contact Time and Electrolyte
from first 18 experiments.
Increased Pollutant Concentration Phenol 150
and 300 ppm Oil 20 and 30 ppm SS 200 and 300 ppm
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Sample Testing

• Oil EPA Method 1664
• Phenol Spectrophotometer Analysis at 270 nm.
• COD Method 5220 C, Closed Reflux Titrimetric
  Method
• Suspended Solids Turbidimeter.

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Conclusion

• A new method involving combined use of
  Electrocoagulation and Ultrafiltration will be
  tested for simulated Petrochemical industry
  wastewater under continuous flow.
• Different levels of current density, contact
  time, electrolyte concentration and pollutant
  level will be tested.
• Standard tests will be used to analyze the
  treated samples collected at various time
  intervals.

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Thank you

• Questions session