Treatment of Petroleum Refinery Wastewater using Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) Reactor

The project is to study the treatment of petroleum refinery's wastewater using upflow
anaerobic sludge blanket, and the experiment was carried out in a laboratory scale
upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) with a volume of 5 liters. The study of
removal efficiency of COD and alkalinity has been studied in addition to the volatile fatty
acid (VFA) and methane gas collection.
In this study the UASB was used for treating wastewater from a petroleum
refinery, where the current system used at the refinery is activated sludge system. The
UASB was able to achieve an average of 70% removal of COD with an effluent
concentration of 90 mg/l, 30% removal of alkalinity, whereas the influent concentration
of COD is average of 450 mg/l.
The experiment was conducted under different hydraulic retention times (HRT),
starting with 5 days hydraulic retention time, and then changed to 4 days HRT to check
the removal efficiencies under different condition. At 4 days HRT the highest removal
efficiency for the COD was obtained and the reactor had acted significantly.
Finally the HRT was changed into 3 days HRT, and more test results were conducted for
more analysis and investigation.