Concawe, Boulevard du Souverain 165, 1160, Brussels, Belgium.
Klaas den Haan E&S Consulting, Jan van Dongenpad 4, 5081 MB, Hilvarenbeek, the Netherlands.
Chemosphere. 2021 Sep;278:130383. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130383. Epub 2021 Mar 27.
Refinery effluents represent an emission source of hydrocarbons (HCs) and other constituents to the environment. Thus, characterisation of effluent quality in terms of concentrations of key parameters relative to permitted standards is important and for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), the specific composition of the HC mixture can affect its toxicity to aquatic organisms. Therefore, this study was designed to analyse TPH, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylenes (BTEX), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), (bio) chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, total suspended solids and selected metals before, and after, treatment steps to demonstrate removal efficiencies across 13 refineries with variable wastewater treatment systems. Final discharge concentrations of the measured parameters were by 97% within the so called Best Available Technique Associated Emission Levels (BAT-AELs). Further, TPH composition was characterised using high-resolution two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) analysis to understand the mass distribution by carbon number and specific chemical class. Measurements were compared to SimpleTreat model predictions for validation. SimpleTreat successfully predicted the shape of the effluent composition since it is essentially a removal constant applied to the influent composition. The predictions were of similar magnitude as, or were greater than, the effluent concentrations since SimpleTreat is based on typical performance and is intended to be conservative. This was especially true for aromatic constituents. Reduction in potential HC exposures also coincided with a decrease in predicted toxicity using a mechanistic oil toxicity model, PETROTOX. Overall, the results indicate that EU petroleum refineries are likely to achieve a high performance level regarding effluent treatment.
炼油厂废水是烃类物质（HCs）和其他成分向环境排放的一个来源。因此，根据关键参数相对于允许标准的浓度来描述废水质量，以及对于总石油烃（TPH）而言，HC 混合物的特定组成会影响其对水生生物的毒性，这一点非常重要。因此，本研究旨在分析处理前后的 TPH、苯、甲苯、乙苯、二甲苯（BTEX）、多环芳烃（PAHs）、（生物）化学需氧量、总氮、总悬浮固体和选定金属，以证明 13 家具有不同废水处理系统的炼油厂的去除效率。所测参数的最终排放浓度有 97%符合所谓的最佳可行技术相关排放标准（BAT-AELs）。此外，还使用高分辨率二维气相色谱（GCxGC）分析对 TPH 组成进行了特征描述，以了解按碳数和特定化学类别的质量分布。将测量值与 SimpleTreat 模型预测值进行了比较，以验证模型。SimpleTreat 成功地预测了废水组成的形状，因为它本质上是应用于进水组成的去除常数。由于 SimpleTreat 基于典型性能，旨在保守预测，因此预测值与废水浓度相当或大于废水浓度。这对于芳香族成分尤其如此。使用基于机制的油毒性模型 PETROTOX 预测毒性，与潜在 HC 暴露量的减少相吻合。总的来说，结果表明，欧盟炼油厂在废水处理方面可能达到很高的性能水平。
