Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater Treatment in a Refinery with Focus on the Desalting Process

¹ Laboratory of Industrial Processes, Syntheses and Renewable Energies, Institut National Polytechnique Houphouet-Boigny, BP 1093 Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire

² Thermodynamics and Physico-Chemistry of the Environment Laboratory (LTPCM), UFR-SFA Université Nangui-Abrogoua, 02 B.P. 801 Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire

AJWEP 2023, 20(1), 1–8; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW230002

Submitted: 10 January 2022 | Revised: 18 October 2022 | Accepted: 18 October 2022 | Published: 23 January 2023

© 2023 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )

Download PDF

Cite

XML

Abstract

During refining operations, desalting wastewater provides 10-30% of the total wastewater volumes and contains 40-70% of the pollutants in the wastewater treatment unit. Desalting consists of removing impurities from the crude oil with washing water. The discharge of treated water into the receptor environment is controlled according to standards regulation. However, due to human health and environmental risks, a multi-criteria and multi-stage analysis must be carried out. This present study aims to identify critical sources of wastewater treatment impacts from desalting operations. Life cycle assessment (LCA) with LCIA methods namely Recipe, CML-IA, TRACI, and USETOX were used in Gabi Software. According to this study, fossil fuel-based, electricity generation is the major contributor to negative output flows with about 99%. Emissions of CO2, CO, NOx, SOx, and COV during electricity generation influence the global warming potential through the greenhouse effect, acidification potential that causes acid rains, and photochemical oxidation potential relative to smog. Uncertainty relative to toxicity results does not allow conclusive points to be made. The inclusion of the desalting process in LCA of wastewater treatment is relevant for a comprehensive analysis. The preliminary results obtained during this work will be used in future LCAs in Africa to develop an environmental assessment database.

Keywords

Life cycle assessment

wastewater

desalting process

refinery

References

Barthe, P., Chaugny, M., Roudier, S. and L. Delgado Sancho (2015). Best available techniques (BAT) reference document for the refining of mineral oil and gas. JRC Sci. Policy Rep. EUR 27140EN.

Bengtsson, M. and B. Steen (2004). Weighting in LCA - Approaches and applications. Environmental Progress, 19: 101-109.

Chapelle, F.H. (1993). Ground-Water Microbiology and Geochemistry, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York: 424p.

Coelho, A., Castro, A.V., Dezotti, M. and G.L. Sant’Anna Jr. (2006). Treatment of petroleum refinery sourwater by advanced oxidation processes. J. Hazard. Mater., 137: 178-184.

Emmerson, R.H.C., Morse, G.K., Lester, J.N. and D.R. Edge (2007). The life‐cycle analysis of small‐scale sewage‐treatment processes. Water and Environment Journal, 9: 317-325.

Gallego-Schmid, A. and R.R.Z. Tarpani (2019). Life cycle assessment of wastewater treatment in developing countries: A review. Water Research, 153: 63-79.

Godin, D., Bouchard, C. and P. Vanrolleghem (2012). Net environmental benefit: Introducing a new LCA approach on wastewater treatment systems. Water Science and Technology, 65: 1624-1631.

Huijbregts, M.A.J., Rombouts, L.J.A., Ragas, A.M.J. and D. van de Meent (2005). Human-toxicological effect and damage factors of carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic chemicals for life cycle impact assessment. Integr. Environ. Assess. Manag., 1(3): 181–244.

Hospido, A., Moreira, M.T. and G. Feijoo (2008). A comparison of municipal wastewater treatment plants for big centers of population in Galicia (Spain). The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 13: 57-64.

IPIECA (2010). Petroleum refining water/wastewater use and management. IPIECA. URL: https://www.ipieca.org/resources/good-practice/petroleum-refining-water-wastewater-use-and-management.

ISO 14040 (2006). Management environnemental — Analyse du cycle de vie — Principes et cadre. URL: https://www.iso.org/fr/standard/37456.html

ISO 14044 (2006). URL: https://www.iso.org/cms/render/live/fr/sites/isoorg/contents/data/standard/03/84/38498.html.

Jolliet, O., Saadé, M. and P. Crettaz (2010). Analyse du cycle de vie: Comprendre et réaliser un écobilan. PPUR Presses Polytechniques, 2: 302.

Karkour, S., Rachid, S., Maaoui, M., Lin, C.-C. and N. Itsubo (2021). Status of life cycle assessment (LCA) in Africa. Environments, 8: 10.

Li, Y., Luo, X., Huang, X., Wang, D. and W. Zhang (2013). Life cycle assessment of a municipal wastewater treatment plant: A case study in Suzhou, China. J. Clean. Prod., 57: 221-227.

Lundin, M., Bengtsson, M. and S. Molander (2000). Life cycle assessment of wastewater systems: Influence of system boundaries and scale on calculated environmental loads. Environmental Science & Technology, 34: 180-186.

Muñoz, I., Aktürk, A.S., Ayyıldız, Ö., Çağlar, Ö., Meabe,E., Contreras, S., Toscano, A., Torné, V., Llopart, N., San Romà, C., Ferrer, O. and A. Jiménez-Banzo (2020). Life cycle assessment of wastewater reclamation in a petroleum refinery in Turkey. J. Clean. Prod., 268: 121967.

Niero, M., Pizzol, M., Bruun, H.G. and M. Thomsen (2014). Comparative life cycle assessment of wastewater treatment in Denmark including sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. J. Clean. Prod., 68: 25-35.

Pak, A. and T. Mohammadi (2008). Wastewater treatment of desalting units. Desalination, 222: 249-254.

Rashid, S.S. and Y.-Q. Liu (2021). Comparison of life cycle toxicity assessment methods for municipal wastewater treatment with the inclusion of direct emissions of metals, PPCPs and EDCs. Sci. Total Environ., 20: 756.

Goedkoop, Mark. (2009). ReCiPe 2008: A life cycle impact assessment method which comprises harmonised category indicators at the midpoint and the endpoint level. Ruimte Enmilieu, Ministerie Van Volkshuisvesting, Tuimtelijke Ordening en Milieubeheer.

Renou, S., Thomas, J.S., Aoustin, E. and M.N. Pons (2008). Influence of impact assessment methods in wastewater treatment LCA. J. Clean. Prod., 16: 1098-1105.

Report SIR (2019). Refinery operational reports_Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage, February - August. SIR, COTE D’IVOIRE.

Rosenbaum, R.K. and T.M. Bachmann (2008). USEtox—the UNEP-SETAC toxicity model: recommended characterization factors for human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity in life cycle impact assessment. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 13: 532-546.

Suez Water Technologies (n.d.). Base de données des fiches de sécurité des matériaux | SUEZ. URL: https://www.suezwatertechnologies.fr/msds.

Tian, Y., Gao, J. and Q. Cai (2018). Current status and trends for oil and gas corridor construction in China. China Oil & Gas, 25(5): 40–46.

Vlasopoulos, N., Memon, F.A., Butler, D. and R. Murphy (2006). Life cycle assessment of wastewater treatment technologies treating petroleum process waters. Sci. Total Environ., 367: 58-70.

Wang, Z., Li, G., Jin, M. and W. Piao (2019). Environmental analysis of three wastewater treatment plants based on the life cycle assessment. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 330: 032075.

WOO (2020). Chapter 5 - Refining outlook. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. URL: https://woo.opec.org/index.php.

Previous article in this issue

Next article in this issue

Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing