TY - JOUR
T1 - Water efficiency solutions for the oil refinery industry
AU - Karkou, Efthalia
AU - Papadaki, Antonia
AU - Angelis-Dimakis, Athanasios
AU - Naves Arnaldos , Andrea
AU - Arampatzis, George
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. George Arampatzis reports financial support and article publishing charges were provided by H2020-AquaSPICE project (European Commission, CE-SPIRE-07-2020, Horizon, 2020). The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Efthalia Karkou reports financial support was provided by Technical University of Crete. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.This study is part of the H2020-AquaSPICE project (EC, CE-SPIRE-07-2020, Horizon 2020). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon-2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 958396. The responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
Funding Information:
This study is part of the H2020-AquaSPICE project ( EC, CE-SPIRE-07-2020 , Horizon 2020). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon-2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 958396 . The responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s)
PY - 2025/9/1
Y1 - 2025/9/1
N2 - The water-intensive oil refinery industry generates a high amount of wastewater that has the potential to be treated and reused for industrial and/or other purposes, with the aim of closing the water loop. A four-phase methodology was developed to identify fit-for-purpose technologies for treating wastewater derived from an oil refinery industry. The scope of this study is to simulate and assess the overall performance of five scenarios for the oil refinery wastewater (ORW) treatment in a real industrial oil refinery plant by utilising the existing industrial-scale conventional Ballast Water Treatment Plant (titled plate separator, mixing, coagulation/flocculation, dissolved air flotation) and implementing an advanced pilot-scale unit (aerobic granular sludge, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis). To this end, process modelling, simulation and life cycle assessment tools were performed. Six performance indicators (Waste Reduction, Water-Eco, Water Sustainability, Improved Water Quality, Digitalisation and Environmental Protection) were defined to compare the performance of all scenarios compared to the existing status (scenario 1). According to the results, scenario 5 (only pilot-scale ORW treatment) proved to be the most efficient and sustainable approach to close the water loop in the oil refinery plant, enabling the reuse of reclaimed water as cooling water, firefighting water, or fed into a biological unit for further treatment.
AB - The water-intensive oil refinery industry generates a high amount of wastewater that has the potential to be treated and reused for industrial and/or other purposes, with the aim of closing the water loop. A four-phase methodology was developed to identify fit-for-purpose technologies for treating wastewater derived from an oil refinery industry. The scope of this study is to simulate and assess the overall performance of five scenarios for the oil refinery wastewater (ORW) treatment in a real industrial oil refinery plant by utilising the existing industrial-scale conventional Ballast Water Treatment Plant (titled plate separator, mixing, coagulation/flocculation, dissolved air flotation) and implementing an advanced pilot-scale unit (aerobic granular sludge, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis). To this end, process modelling, simulation and life cycle assessment tools were performed. Six performance indicators (Waste Reduction, Water-Eco, Water Sustainability, Improved Water Quality, Digitalisation and Environmental Protection) were defined to compare the performance of all scenarios compared to the existing status (scenario 1). According to the results, scenario 5 (only pilot-scale ORW treatment) proved to be the most efficient and sustainable approach to close the water loop in the oil refinery plant, enabling the reuse of reclaimed water as cooling water, firefighting water, or fed into a biological unit for further treatment.
KW - Oil refinery industry
KW - Wastewater treatment
KW - Reuse
KW - Water efficiency
KW - Closed loop
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105010319149&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126343
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126343
M3 - Article
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 391
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 126343
ER -
