Technical Report: Novel Oil/Water Separator for Treatment of Oily Bilgewater

2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (02) ◽  
pp. 111-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Caplan ◽  
Chris Newton ◽  
Donald Kelemen

A novel device that combines physical separation methods with biotechnology to treat oily bilgewater is described. Laboratory and pilot-scale experiments were performed to examine the ability of this device, tradenamed PetroLiminator TM, to both separate free oil and biodegrade the dissolved or emulsified oil from shipboard bilgewater. Laboratory experiments were conducted to isolate and enrich bilge oil-degrading microorganisms. These microbes were grown in specially formulated liquid nutrients containing several hundred parts per million (ppm) of bilge oil as the sole carbon source. These cultures were inoculated into a laboratory-scale aqueous fixed-film bioreactor for determination of the required flow rate (i.e., hydraulic retention time) to remove ⋜99% of the petroleum hydrocarbons in the bilgewater. This information was incorporated into the design and operation of a 500 gal pilot-scale bioreactor installed aboard the 700 ft Cape Lobos MARAD motor vessel. The bioreactor was operated for 70 days processing more than 90 000 liters of petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contaminated bilgewater. The average PHC concentration in the untreated influent was 70 to 90 ppm. The TPH levels in all treated effluent samples analyzed were well below 15 ppm, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) limit for legal overboard discharge. In fact, the removal efficiencies for the system were greater than 99% with no operational or maintenance problems noted. A newer model was developed that incorporated a physical separation chamber (Stage 1) upstream of the bioreactor chamber (Stage 2) in order to minimize the oil load to the microbes. A series of tests was conducted that closely mimicked the USCG tests for oil/water separators (OWS). The results were dramatic. The PHC levels in the effluent were below 15 ppm in all samples analyzed for the specified flow rate. Based on these data, it is estimated that the subject system with a footprint of 6 × 5 × 5 ft (L × W× H) is able to treat up to 86 000 gal of oily bilgewater per month. This system was USCG and IMO approved in January 2000.

TAPPI Journal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUAN-SHING PERNG ◽  
EUGENE I-CHEN WANG ◽  
SHIH-TSUNG YU ◽  
AN-YI CHANG

Trends toward closure of white water recirculation loops in papermaking often lead to a need for system modifications. We conducted a pilot-scale study using pulsed electrocoagulation technology to treat the effluent of an old corrugated containerboard (OCC)-based paper mill in order to evaluate its treatment performance. The operating variables were a current density of 0–240 A/m2, a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8–16 min, and a coagulant (anionic polyacrylamide) dosage of 0–22 mg/L. Water quality indicators investigated were electrical con-ductivity, suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and true color. The results were encouraging. Under the operating conditions without coagulant addition, the highest removals for conductivity, SS, COD, and true color were 39.8%, 85.7%, 70.5%, and 97.1%, respectively (with an HRT of 16 min). The use of a coagulant enhanced the removal of both conductivity and COD. With an optimal dosage of 20 mg/L and a shortened HRT of 10 min, the highest removal achieved for the four water quality indicators were 37.7%, 88.7%, 74.2%, and 91.7%, respectively. The water qualities thus attained should be adequate to allow reuse of a substantial portion of the treated effluent as process water makeup in papermaking.


2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 988-998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadesse Alemu ◽  
Andualem Mekonnen ◽  
Seyoum Leta

Abstract In the present study, a pilot scale horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland (CW) system planted with Phragmites karka; longitudinal profile was studied. The wetland was fed with tannery wastewater, pretreated in a two-stage anaerobic digester followed by a sequence batch reactor. Samples from each CW were taken and analyzed using standard methods. The removal efficiency of the CW system in terms of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), Cr and total coliforms were 91.3%, 90%, 97.3% and 99%, respectively. The removal efficiency for TN, NO3− and NH4+-N were 77.7%, 66.3% and 67.7%, respectively. Similarly, the removal efficiency of SO42−, S2− and total suspended solids (TSS) were 71.8%, 88.7% and 81.2%, respectively. The concentration of COD, BOD, TN, NO3−N, NH4+-N, SO42 and S2− in the final treated effluent were 113.2 ± 52, 56 ± 18, 49.3 ± 13, 22.75 ± 20, 17.1 ± 6.75, 88 ± 120 and 0.4 ± 0.44 mg/L, respectively. Pollutants removal was decreased in the first 12 m and increased along the CW cells. P. karka development in the first cell of CW was poor, small in size and experiencing chlorosis, but clogging was higher in this area due to high organic matter settling, causing a partial surface flow. The performance of the pilot CW as a tertiary treatment showed that the effluent meets the permissible discharge standards.


SPE Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jianjun Zhu ◽  
Hanjun Zhao ◽  
Guangqiang Cao ◽  
Hattan Banjar ◽  
Haiwen Zhu ◽  
...  

Summary As the second most widely used artificial lift method in the petroleum industry, electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) maintain or increase flow rates by converting the kinetic energy to hydraulic pressure. As oilfields age, water is invariably produced with crude oil. The increase of water cut generates oil-water emulsions due to the high-shearing effects inside a rotating ESP. Emulsions can be stabilized by natural surfactants or fine solids existing in the reservoir fluids. The formation of emulsions during oil production creates a high viscous mixture, resulting in costly problems and flow assurance issues, such as increasing pressure drop and reducing production rates. This paper, for the first time, proposes a new rheology model to predict the oil-water emulsion effective viscosities and establishes a link of fluid rheology and its effect with the stage pressure increment of ESPs. Based on Brinkman's (1952) correlation, a new rheology model, accounting for ESP rotational speed, stage number, fluid properties, and so on, is developed, which can also predict the phase inversion in oil-water emulsions. For the new mechanistic model to calculate ESP boosting pressure, a conceptual best-match flow rate (QBM) is introduced. QBM corresponds to the flow rate whose direction at the ESP impeller outlet matches the designed flow direction. Induced by the liquid flow rates changing, various pressure losses can be derived from QBM, including recirculation losses, and losses due to friction, leakage, sudden change of flow directions, and so on. Incorporating the new rheology model into the mechanistic model, the ESP boosting pressure under oil-water emulsion flow can be calculated. To validate the proposed model, the experimental data from two different types of ESPs were compared with the model predictions in terms of ESP boosting pressure. Under both high-viscositysingle-phase fluid flow and oil-water emulsion flow, the model predicted ESP pressure increment matches the experimental measurements well. From medium to high flow rates with varying oil viscosities and water cuts, the prediction error is less than 15%.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
B Vivekanandan ◽  
K Jeyannathann ◽  
A. Seshagiri Rao

Abstract The quality of a treated effluent changes when there is a sudden variation in the influent flow to the wastewater treatment plant during dry, rain, and storm weather conditions. In this study, various influent flow conditions in an activated sludge process are considered that affect the sensitivity of effluent variables such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), nitrate nitrogen (SNO), ammonical nitrogen (SNH), and total nitrogen (TN) with respect to varying internal recycle flow rate (Qa), sludge recycle flow rate (Qr), sludge wastage flow rate (Qw) and oxygen transfer rate co-efficient of aerobic tanks (KLa(3,4,5)). The analysis has been carried out based on benchmark simulation model no.1 (BSM 1) plant layout which comprises of two models namely activated sludge model no.1 (ASM 1) and simple one dimensional (Simple 1-D) Takacs model. Based on the present analysis, it is observed that the changes in influent flow rate have larger impact on the effluent variables. This variation can be subdued by introducing additional tanks to smoothen the perturbations or using internal recycle rate from the fifth tank in order to maintain the flow around the optimal influent flow rate. The sludge wastage rate has a greater impact on all effluent variables except nitrogenous variables during maximum flow conditions.


Author(s):  
Klaus Doelle ◽  
Qian Wang

The study tested a designed and built pilot scale packed bio-tower system under continuous operation using pre-clarified municipal wastewater. Performance was evaluated by measuring the removal of chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen ammonia. The pilot scale packed bio-tower system had a diameter of 1209 mm (4 ft.) and a height of 3,962 mm (13 ft.) and contained Bentwood CF-1900 bacteria growth media with a surface area of 6,028.80 ft² (560.09 m²). The municipal residential sewage was fed into a 1,481 l (375 gal.) recirculation reservoir at a temperature of 15°C (59.0°F) and a flow rate between 7,571 l/d (2000 gal/d) and 90,850 l/d (24,000 gal/d) and recirculated through the bio-tower with a fixed recirculation rate of 75.7 l/min (20 gal/min). The influent COD value reduction achieved is between 63.4% and 84.8%, whereas the COD influent value varied between 87 mg/l and 140 mg/l. The influent NH3-N reduction achieved was between 99.8% and 91.8% whereas the influent NH3-N value was between 28.8 mg/l and 18.6 mg/l  at a flow rate between 7571 l/d (2000 gal/d) and 90,850 l/d (24,000 gal/d).


2012 ◽  
Vol 524-527 ◽  
pp. 2092-2096
Author(s):  
Xiang Hu ◽  
Li Xie ◽  
Bo Chen ◽  
Ho Jae Shim ◽  
Qi Zhou

In this paper, in order to ensure stable and efficient operation of a pilot-scale modified A2/O (anoxic/anaerobic/aerobic/pre-anoxic) -MBR plant, the automatic control system based on PLC is designed and introduced from the views of system configuration and unit control methods. The master computer undertakes the monitoring and managing task by Siemens WINCC 7.0 configuring software, while the slave computer implements the function of data collection and automatic control based on Siemens S7-300 PLC. Intelligent PID algorithm is utilized to precisely control the influent flow rate, recycled flow rate and DO concentration in aerobic tank in this system. The commissioning and operation practice has proved that the PLC-based automatic control system greatly improved the degree of automation and achieved high nutrient removal efficiency in this plant.


2013 ◽  
Vol 133 (5) ◽  
pp. 3237-3237
Author(s):  
Jason P. Dionne ◽  
Brian McCarthy ◽  
Ben Ross-Johnsrud ◽  
Louis Masi ◽  
Bart Lipkens

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Loewert ◽  
Michael Riedinger ◽  
Peter Pfeifer

Climate change calls for a paradigm shift in the primary energy generation that comes with new challenges to store and transport energy. A decentralization of energy conversion can only be implemented with novel methods in process engineering. In the second part of our work, we took a deeper look into the load flexibility of microstructured Fischer–Tropsch synthesis reactors to elucidate possible limits of dynamic operation. Real data from a 10 kW photovoltaic system is used to calculate a dynamic H2 feed flow, assuming that electrolysis is capable to react on power changes accordingly. The required CO flow for synthesis could either originate from a constantly operated biomass gasification or from a direct air capture that produces CO2; the latter is assumed to be dynamically converted into synthesis gas with additional hydrogen. Thus two cases exist, the input is constantly changing in syngas ratio or flow rate. These input data were used to perform challenging experiments with the pilot scale setup. Both cases were compared. While it appeared that a fluctuating flow rate is tolerable for constant product composition, a coupled temperature-conversion relationship model was developed. It allows keeping the conversion and product distribution constant despite highly dynamic feed flow conditions.


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