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Treatment of wastewater from petroleum industry: current practices and perspectives

  • Sustainable Industrial and Environmental Bioprocesses
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Abstract

Petroleum industry is one of the fastest growing industries, and it significantly contributes to economic growth in developing countries like India. The wastewater from a petroleum industry consist a wide variety of pollutants like petroleum hydrocarbons, mercaptans, oil and grease, phenol, ammonia, sulfide, and other organic compounds. All these compounds are present as very complex form in discharged water of petroleum industry, which are harmful for environment directly or indirectly. Some of the techniques used to treat oily waste/wastewater are membrane technology, photocatalytic degradation, advanced oxidation process, electrochemical catalysis, etc. In this review paper, we aim to discuss past and present scenario of using various treatment technologies for treatment of petroleum industry waste/wastewater. The treatment of petroleum industry wastewater involves physical, chemical, and biological processes. This review also provides scientific literature on knowledge gaps and future research directions to evaluate the effect(s) of various treatment technologies available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382010, India

    Sunita Varjani

  2. School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382007, India

    Rutu Joshi

  3. Sankalchand Patel Vidyadham, Sankalchand Patel University, Visnagar, Gujarat, 384315, India

    Vijay Kumar Srivastava

  4. Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Huu Hao Ngo & Wenshan Guo

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  1. Sunita Varjani
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  2. Rutu Joshi
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  3. Vijay Kumar Srivastava
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  4. Huu Hao Ngo
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  5. Wenshan Guo
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Correspondence to Sunita Varjani.

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Highlights

• This manuscript reviews technologies used for treatment of petroleum industry wastewater

• Integration of available technologies play vital role for treatment of oily wastewater

• Wastewater treatment process in petroleum industry is briefly discussed

• More studies are required to close existing knowledge gaps prior to engineering application

• Recovery of resources from petroleum industry wastewater shall be explored.

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Varjani, S., Joshi, R., Srivastava, V.K. et al. Treatment of wastewater from petroleum industry: current practices and perspectives. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 27172–27180 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04725-x

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