Continuos treatment of oily sludge at Colombian refineries
Abstract
The Colombian Petroleum Institute -ICP-, the research and development branch of Ecopetrol has developed a unique technological package used to treat oily sludge in a continuous way. The sludge comes from a refinery with a 220 000 barrels of crude per day load, located in the Middle Madgalena River Valley in Colombia. The Technological Package allows for :a) the recovery of the hydrocarbon contained in oily wastes (up to 50%); b) the elimination of the oil contained in solid using a biodegradation process; and, c) the availability of an economically and technically feasible solution to handle oily sludge generated in the refinery. The oily wastes treated in this process come from maintenance of refinery's equipment and also from the physical-chemical separation process at the industrial waste water treatment plant. Oily sludge is a complex system where light and heavy oils, contaminated water and contaminated solids coexist in the form of direct, inverse and multiple emulsions. The comprehensive technological package allows the treatment of oily sludge in a cost-effective way. ICP's Technological package developed includes technologies combining mechanical, thermal, chemical and electrostatic dehydration techniques, and stimulated and intensive bioremediation to decontamination of solids saturated with residual oil. This technological package brings a solution to the old environmental problem caused by the inappropriate final disposal of oily wastes such as storage in ponds, marshes and open pits. Nowadays oily wastes generated are treated in a continuous process that is environmentally friendly and economically profitable.
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