Applications of nitrification-denitrification processes: Advances in petrochemical wastewater treatment Book in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • The growing exploitation of oil as part of the energy demand and the obtaining by-products has generated a growing oil industry, which in turn requires a large amount of water that becomes a large amount of wastewater. It is estimated that for every ton of crude oil processed, between 3.5 and 5.0m3 of petroleum wastewater is generated. These wastewaters are made up of various dissolved recalcitrant organic compounds, such as oils, phenols, polycyclic aromatic compounds, naphthenic acids, and other toxic compounds. Petrochemical wastewater also contains ammoniacal nitrogen, and studies report that total nitrogen removal efficiency is relatively low (~55%) due to limited bioavailable carbon and the inhibitory effects of toxic oil contaminants for nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. That said, treating petroleum wastewater still remains a major challenge for scientists, as conventional physicochemical treatment methods are energy and resource intensive. On the other hand, biological methods offer the advantage of being friendly to the environment, low-cost operation, and are presumed to be more efficient in removing pollutants. In this chapter, different approaches, such as bioaugmentation, microbial consortium design, and cell immobilization, for the removal of nitrogen from petroleum wastewater effluents are revised, followed by the use of different types of bioreactors for this purpose, and recent applications are discussed. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • January 1, 2024