Clean thinking

The Middle East's petrochemical industry will be demanding $534 million worth of waste water treatment equipment by 2011, up from $149 million since 2008. Petrochemicals Middle East meets the leading players servicing that growing need.

Nowhere is water a more precious commodity than here in the Middle East. Though much is frittered away on luxurious landscaped hotel gardens, it remains a cornerstone of the petrochemicals industry, and the downstream business is demanding ever-more as bigger capacities come on stream.

The development of techniques to treat used water and, re-use this vital commodity are filtering into the petrochemical sector as the industry does its best to conserve this critical resource, whilst simultaneously limiting its environmental impact.

There is no escaping the fact that the petrochemical business is a massive consumer of water, and its presence is necessary through almost all of the different production processes. It is deployed as a medium in cooling systems, for production boiler feeds and for the more mundane, but necessary domestic purposes.

"In the last few years, the petrochemical industry in the Middle East has attracted huge investments. In fact, the sector could be considered as a cornerstone of economic diversification in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries," says Vivek Gautam, senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan's environmental and building technologies practice -  South Asia and Middle East. "This steady and healthy flow of investments in petrochemical industry has ensured that there is a strong demand for water and wastewater treatment equipments from the industry," he adds.

Wastewater production strongly depends on the process configuration. For a refinery with cooling water recycle a production of approximate 3.5 - 5 cubic metres per tonne of processed crude can be taken. With refineries in the Middle East regularly processing upwards of 600 000 barrels of crude each day, that's a lot of water. The uncontrolled discharge of refinery effluent is no longer possible, so the wastewater treatment requirement in the region is collosal.

Methods

Petrochemical and refinery wastewater treatment generally requires a combination of treatment methods to bring down the level of organics within acceptable limits before it can be discharged. A typical wastewater treatment scheme for a petrochemical plant or refinery is shown down in Figure 1.

"Our company is specialised in the design and manufacture of vacuum evaporators which allow the concentration of exhausted emulsified oils, the recycling of solvents, the recycling of glycols, the compartmentalisation of the organic components in the water, and the recovery of the water present," explains Dr. Georgina Porro, export manager at C&G Depurazione Industriale.

Challenges

Refinery and petrochemical sites represent some of the most challenging water treatment environments. High heat fluxes, difficult water conditions and intense pressures on capital and consumable budgets require water treatment programs to operate under maximum stress.

The goal is to minimise operating costs and maximise energy efficiency, whilst preventing operational problems and maintaining production rates.

"From our company's point of view the volume of water the petrochemical industry can create is a problem. The use of our vacuum evaporators is possible when we talk about discharge up to about 45 m3/day,  but the volumes involved when we talk about the petrochemical industry are generally much larger," says Dr Porro.

Poor operational control and high heat fluxes in a process heat exchanger in one petrochemical plant presented serious operational challenges. The temperature difference across the exchanger was routinely 4-10˚C. Loss of exchanger efficiency due to calcium phosphate (CaPO4) deposition was persistent and chemical cleaning routine.

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