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Evaluation of the Removal of Pollutants from Petrochemical Wastewater Using A Membrane Bioreactor Treatment Plant

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Abstract

A submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) was used to treat two types of petrochemical wastewater: olefin process wastewater and total petrochemical wastewater. Various operational MBR conditions, such as influent pH and hydraulic retention time (HRT), were tested while these wastewaters were treated. The MBR treatment of olefin process wastewater reduced chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) by around 90% in both cases, and more than 90% of the suspended solids (SS) were removed. When MBR was used, the reduction in COD and TOC was also high for the total petrochemical wastewater, and was compared with the reduction obtained when the conventional activated sludge treatment plant was used (CASP). However, MBR effluent wastewaters showed high conductivity so for some reuse purposes subsequent reverse osmosis (RO) treatment would be needed. We characterized the MBR influent and MBR effluent wastewaters using a sequential solid phase extraction (SSPE) followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analyses. The main compounds that were tentatively identified were hydrocarbons, alkyl benzenes, phenols, acidic acids and esters, almost all of which could be partially or completely removed by MBR treatment.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Dirección General de Investigación of the Ministry of Science and Technology (CTM 2004-06265-C03-02 and CTM 2005-01774), the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya for A. Llop’s predoctoral grant (2007 FI00026), and the Petrochemical Industry for allowing us to do this study.

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  1. Departament de Química Analítica i Química Orgànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Campus Sescelades, Marcel.lí Domingo s/n, 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Anna Llop, Eva Pocurull & Francesc Borrull

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  1. Anna Llop
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  2. Eva Pocurull
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  3. Francesc Borrull
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Correspondence to Eva Pocurull.

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Llop, A., Pocurull, E. & Borrull, F. Evaluation of the Removal of Pollutants from Petrochemical Wastewater Using A Membrane Bioreactor Treatment Plant. Water Air Soil Pollut 197, 349–359 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-008-9816-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-008-9816-7

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