Membrane Filtration Process Application of Oily Wastewater Treatment from Oil Refinery Unit

Oily wastewaters and oil-in-water emulsions are two major environmental pollutants. However, industrial oily wastewaters, though they may be lower in volume, contain much higher concentrations of pollutants. Treatment of the oily and greasy wastewater of Tehran refinery was experimentally studied using an ultrafiltration (UF) system. In the experiments, a UF membrane Polysulfone (PS) 30 kDa and sample from Tehran refineryoutlet wastewater of the API unit were used as feed. Effects of different operating parameters such as transmembrane pressure (TMP), cross flow velocity (CFV), and temperature on permeation flux, fouling resistance and UF rejection were studied. According to the results, permeation flux was found to improve with increasing TMP, CFV and temperature at constant feed concentration. Fouling of the membrane completely follows Hermia’s model (filtration cake mechanism). Analysis of the UF process showed 99.2, 75.4, 63.3, 42.3, 23.1, 100 and 97.9 % decreases in oil and grease content, total organic carbon (TOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS) and turbidity, respectively. A comparison of the results shows that UF performs better than conventional biologicalmethods. The results showed that refinery wastewater treatment by using UF process is possible. The obtained UF permeates are suitable to discharge into the environment, even in the special regions in accordance with international requirements.