Stakeholders Realize the Importance of Implementing New Processes to Reclaim and Reuse Oil from Sludge and Emulsion Solids
Oil sludge is produced at various stages of the oil industry from exploration, production, transportation, processing, and storage. Majority of the sludge is produced at waste water treatment plants considering that large quantities of water are used at critical nodes of the refinery process including desalting, thermal cracking, distillation and catalytic cracking. It is estimated that for every volume of crude oil processed, up to 1.6 times of wastewater is produced and for every 500 tons of crude oil processed, 1 ton of oil sludge is produced. Therefore, sludge produced during refinery processes has gained a lot of attention from policy makers and regualtory bodies. Traditionally, mechanical, electrochemical and biological processes have been used for petroleum wastewater treatment. However, secondary waste generated is generated from these processes creating difficulties in managing disposal.
Additionally, petroleum sludge is also generated from cleaning of oil storage tanks, equipment maintenance and oil-water separators. Therefore, there is a need to explore different alternative routes available for treatment and management of petroleum sludge waste from across the oil industry value chain. One another area of concern is the removal and valorization of mercury from non-associated gas streams. In most cases, mercury in natural gas occurs in elemental state. Due to its high vapor pressure, mercury is very mobile and can get dispersed throughout the gas plant’s assets. This creates a major challenge for gas processors to make decision on how and where it can be removed.
This research service titled “Treatment and Valorization of waste streams in the Oil & Gas industry” details trends in the oil and gas industry which are creating a need for new and efficient methods for treatment of waste streams in the oil and gas industry. Classification of waste streams is discussed according to the source and composition. The main focus of this research is to identify the technology development trends in waste separation, treatment and valorization of four waste types classified based on source including:
- Oil handling waste
- Mercury waste from non-associated gas streams in gas plants
- Drilling & work-over waste
- Pyrophoric iron sulfide refinery and gas processing plants
- Insights on activities of key stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, maturity of emerging technologies and patent filing trends are discussed to provide an overview of the evolving technology landscape
