Sustainable waste

management and petroleum

sludge
Dunja S. Sokolovic, Dragan D. Govedarica
Faculty of Technology, Bul. Cara Lazara 1,
Novi Sad

Main principles of sustainable oily

waste management
waste source reduction
reusing

recycling
composting
incineration with energy recovery
fuel production
waste treatment

Sustainable waste management in oil

refinery
Implementation is driven by :
abatement air pollution from process units
production of environment friendly fuels

Waste management in oil refinery

- out of the main environmental activities
Oil Refineries :

big and fully integrated installations

manage huge amount of raw materials (crude oil)
intensive consumers of energy and water
generate emissions to atmosphere, water and soil

IPPC Directive controls refineries operations

Emission and consumption in oil

refinery
huge amount of crude oil do not generate substantial quantities of waste

Waste generation in oil refinery

Type of Waste Percentage

The BREF on Mineral Oil and

Gas Refineries
The European IPPC Bureau develop BREF document assist
implementation of the IPPC directive on oil and gas refineries
BREFs - specific guidance,what may be technically and
economically available to industry waste managment programm
Improving environmental performance
Technical Working Group - TWG - meeting in December 2008
observed deficiency:

no capacity or Nelson index has been taken into account

does not cover data about classification of refinery waste, nor assessing
whether the waste is toxic or not (Waste List Decision 2000/532/EC and
2001/573/EC)

BREF document
waste management program
elements for preventing waste generation
pollution prevention techniques ( for soil and
ground water)

Analyses of BREF :
Some elements are not acceptable for many refineries
built 40 years ago

Waste management programme

Implementation of a sludge master plan with the aim to reduce the sludge
generated
Clean and assembly only in especially constructed and dedicated areas
Provide dedicated drainage systems
Physical barriers such as clay walls or plastic membranes can be installed
around the site boundary
Minimization of underground piping
Perform a risk analysis in order to rank the significance cases where
accidental leak may occur
Periodical screening of leaks in sewers and pipes
Correct conditioning of a catalyst during a run extends catalytic life
Process optimization leads to less off-specification product and hence less
recycle
Recycling caustic sufficiently can ensure it is completely spent
Sorting waste mixes e.g. concrete and scrap metal
TEL/TML scale & sludge: permanganate treatment eliminates TEL/TML
traces
De-oiling in an oil extractor
Process treatment by steaming, flushing or regeneration prior to disposal:
clay and sand filters; catalysts

Methods for refinery waste

processing
Biological methods
Incineration of refinery sludge
Increasing oil phase of refinery sediment
Treatment of used catalysts
Other methods

Biological methods
Landfarming method ex situ method
treatment of oily wastes
- disposal of refinery sludge in previous prepared space
- refinery sludge in layers, periodically turned or processed
- control of content for optimal rate of degradation (pH, moisture
con.,aeration..)

Landfilling method ex situ method

disposal of oily wastes

Incineration of refinery sludge

Incineration processes are: fixed hearth incinerators,
multiple hearth incinerators, rotary kiln incinerators, liquid
fuel incinerators, gas or fume incinerator, fluidised bed
incinerators
FBI is the most used method
-

flexible to a large variations in sludge composition

working temperature 800 - 950C
produced ash is used as component for cement and
asphalt mixture
appropriate techniques control SO2,NOx,CO, organic
compounds, PAH and heavy metals emission
concentration of dust is not more then 5mg/Nm3
reduce refinery sludge to 0,5-1 kg per tone crude oil

Oil wastes pathways

Comments
Analysis of current trends in waste treatment of the
refinery indicates that today used techniques for refinery
sludge are the same applied 20 years ago

Applicable BREF document is based on data published

16 years ago (in most cases) and requires a serious
revision in the waste management of oil refinery
Introduction of new processing and modern catalysts
(especially deep conversion process) is the main reason
for the reduction of the total quantity of the refinery
sludge

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE !