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A field pilot-scale study of biological treatment of heavy oil-produced water by biological filter with airlift aeration and hydrolytic acidification system

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Abstract

Heavy oil-produced water (HOPW) is a by-product during heavy oil exploitation and can cause serious environmental pollution if discharged without adequate treatment. Commercial biochemical treatment units are important parts of HOPW treatment processes, but many are not in stable operation because of the toxic and refractory substances, salt, present. Therefore, pilot-scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of hydrolytic acidification-biological filter with airlift aeration (HA-BFAA), a novel HOPW treatment system. Four strains isolated from oily sludge were used for bioaugmentation to enhance the biodegradation of organic pollutants. The isolated bacteria were evaluated using 3-day biochemical oxygen demand, oil, dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removals as evaluation indices. Bioaugmentation enhanced the COD removal by 43.5 mg/L under a volume load of 0.249 kg COD/m3 day and hydraulic retention time of 33.6 h. The effluent COD was 70.9 mg/L and the corresponding COD removal was 75.0 %. The optimum volumetric air-to-water ratio was below 10. The removal ratios of the total extractable organic pollutants, alkanes, and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons were 71.1, 94.4, and 94.0 %, respectively. Results demonstrated that HA-BFAA was an excellent HOPW treatment system.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the National Key State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program, No. 2011CB200906), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51474223 and 41172333), China Petroleum Science and Technology Major Project of Low Carbon (No. 2011E-2408), and China Petroleum Science and Technology Major Project of Development and Industrial Applications of Sets of Technology in Ten Million Tons Large Refinery (No. K1003-5).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, People’s Republic of China

    Min Zhang & Zhongzhi Zhang

  2. Dalian Design Branch, China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation, Dalian, 116011, China

    Junming Wang & Beiyu Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, Faculty of Sciences, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, People’s Republic of China

    Zhaozheng Song

  4. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Zhenjia Zhang

  5. School of Mechanical, Materials & Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW2522, Australia

    Guangqing Zhang

  6. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Center for Sustainable Development & Global Competitiveness, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305-4020, USA

    Wei-Min Wu

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  1. Min Zhang
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  2. Junming Wang
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  3. Zhongzhi Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhongzhi Zhang.

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Zhang, M., Wang, J., Zhang, Z. et al. A field pilot-scale study of biological treatment of heavy oil-produced water by biological filter with airlift aeration and hydrolytic acidification system. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 4919–4930 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5721-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5721-y

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