UTILIZATION OF PETROLEUM SLUDGE USING PLASMA ELECTROLYSIS TO

PRODUCE VALUABLE OIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Adream Bais Junior

Program Studi Teknik Kimia, Departemen Teknik Kimia, Fakultas Teknik, Universitas Indonesia
(UI)
Departemen Teknik Kimia, Fakultas Teknik Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Jawa Barat 16424
E-mail: adream.bais@gmail.com

Abstract

Petroleum sludge has always been a problem in oil refinery processing. They took the form of
hard solid, composed of complex and long chain of hydrocarbon, causing it very hard to crack it,
and also a pollution to the enviroment. It has been estimated that one ton of petroleum sludge
waste is generated for every 500 tons of crude oil processed. Petroleum sludge is capable to
penetrate into ground and pollute water and air, categorized as Hazardous Wastes under the
Environment Protection Act and Hazardous Wastes Handling Rules. These sludges usually
treated with bioremediation, a combination of chemicals and deemulsifiers, thermal cracking, and
other similar methods. Bioremediation process takes a long time to process petroleum sludge in a
large oil tank. On the other hand, the cost of plant, machinery, solvents, and operations are very
high for all these types of processes. Oil companies tends to use landfill to store these sludges,
due to its high cost but non-profitable process. However, petroleum sludge is rich hydrocarbons
with high potential energy and the average calorific value is above 10.2 kW/kg, according to
Pyromex Data. We suggest the idea of implementing plasma electrolysis technology to extract
short and simple hydrocarbons from petroleum sludge. It is proven that plasma electrolysis
increases yield 8 times than Faradays equation, due to one of the process namely contact glow
discharge plasma (CGDP). With the plasma, the kinetics in the solution becomes increased, so
that an active species will form which will attack the solution. Methanol is also used as a solvent
and electrolyte. Methanol is used due to its ability to produce 10 times more yield than water
solvent and also a suitable solvent for hydrocarbons, non-polar. Even though the cost of methanol
are considered high, the product that is produced could cover it, even producing profit. The
power cost and equipment cost is greatly reduced with this process, due to the only equipment
involved is electrode and pump, in additional with electrolyte. In view of the very large quantities
of accumulated sludge in the refineries, the value of recovered oil is substantially high and thus
profitable to the refineries, if the plasma electrolysis is used.

Keyword : petroleum sludge, plasma electrolysis, hydrocarbon