Conventional and high resolution chemical characterization to assess refinery effluent treatment performance

M. Hjort*, K. H. den Haan, G. Whale, J. Koekkoek, P. E.G. Leonards, A. D. Redman, E. Vaiopoulou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Refinery effluents represent an emission source of hydrocarbons (HCs) and other constituents to the environment. Thus, characterisation of effluent quality in terms of concentrations of key parameters relative to permitted standards is important and for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), the specific composition of the HC mixture can affect its toxicity to aquatic organisms. Therefore, this study was designed to analyse TPH, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylenes (BTEX), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), (bio) chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, total suspended solids and selected metals before, and after, treatment steps to demonstrate removal efficiencies across 13 refineries with variable wastewater treatment systems. Final discharge concentrations of the measured parameters were by 97% within the so called Best Available Technique Associated Emission Levels (BAT-AELs). Further, TPH composition was characterised using high-resolution two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) analysis to understand the mass distribution by carbon number and specific chemical class. Measurements were compared to SimpleTreat model predictions for validation. SimpleTreat successfully predicted the shape of the effluent composition since it is essentially a removal constant applied to the influent composition. The predictions were of similar magnitude as, or were greater than, the effluent concentrations since SimpleTreat is based on typical performance and is intended to be conservative. This was especially true for aromatic constituents. Reduction in potential HC exposures also coincided with a decrease in predicted toxicity using a mechanistic oil toxicity model, PETROTOX. Overall, the results indicate that EU petroleum refineries are likely to achieve a high performance level regarding effluent treatment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number130383
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
JournalChemosphere
Volume278
Early online date27 Mar 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Concawe Member Companies that provided the samples and the members of Concawe special task forces on Biological Effects/Measures (WQ/STF-32) and Water Effluent Quality and Water Resource Management (WQ/STF-34) for their review and commenting on the manuscript. This study was funded by Concawe.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Effluent quality
  • Petroleum hydrocarbons
  • Refinery
  • Treatment
  • Wastewater

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