Author(s)

S. R. M. Kutty, H. A. Gasim, P. F. Khamaruddin & A. Malakahmad

Abstract

A petroleum refinery facility discharge wastewater with average influent COD concentration of approximately 500-750 mg/L during the period of this study. Study on the treatability of the petroleum refinery effluent wastewater was conducted using bench scale biological sequencing batch reactor systems. Six sequencing batch reactors (SBR) each of 2L liquid volume were operated at a 24 hours cycle. The SBRs were operated in various anaerobically stirred and aerobic modes. The average COD removals percentages for the aerobic reactor, combined anaerobic-aerobic reactors and aerobic mixed with domestic wastewater were found to be approximately, 91%, 91%, and 88% respectively, with its final average effluent COD of 63 mg/L, 65 mg/L, and 44 mg/L, respectively. Keywords: sequencing batch reactor, petroleum refinery wastewater, COD. 1 Introduction Petroleum refining involves the transformation of crude oil into final useful products such as gasoline, gas oil, kerosene and jet fuel, and petrochemical feed stocks. The refined products are produced after a series of separation and treatment processes. After initial crude desalting and fractionation, several treatment and conversion processes are employed to reach the final blending stocks [1]. These activities involve consumption of huge amounts of water and will lead to the production of wastewater streams of which characteristics are very much dependent on the complexity and number of processes in a refinery

Keywords

sequencing batch reactor, petroleum refinery wastewater, COD