Physical-Chemical Methods of Treatment for Oil-Containing Effluents
After a preliminary oil-removal by gravity in various types of oil-separators, the effluents from pipe-line terminals, de-ballasting units and refineries still contain, as a stable emulsion, significant residual hydrocarbon concentrations, varying from 25 to 300 mgl. In order to bring these effluents to comply with the regulations governing their discharge either to the sea or to a river, or simply to be able to send them to a complementary biological treatment unit, it is necessary to submit such effluents to a polishing oil-removal process; such process, often called physical-chemical treatment, is necessary to remove the above mentioned residual, insoluble hydrocarbons and leave the soluble hydrocarbons only. Practically and depending on the case considered, the final total hydrocarbon content obtained should not exceed from 5 to 20 mgl−1. For this, there are several techniques based on dissolved air flotation, or filtration. These respective processes and their results are summarized hereafter by the authors who gathered them from experiments conducted on pilot plants and, most of all, from numerous industrial treatment plants in Europe and in America.