Course description

The increasing energy demand over the past decades has resulted in a corresponding growth and expansion in the production and processing of crude petroleum and natural gas. The proliferation of such large scale industrial complexes combined with the increasingly stringent environmental legislation underscores the need for a dedicated course on petroleum refining water/wastewater use and management. This is an environmental engineering course designed for chemical engineers and is designed to provide the fundamentals of pollution control for tomorrow’s chemical engineer with focus on petroleum refineries.

Course Pre-Requisites: None

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Explain the implications of pollution on water bodies.
2. Appraise different types of refinery water and wastewater.
3. Critique best available techniques for water pollution prevention and wastewater reclamation, including sludge management.
4. Justify the selection of technologies for petroleum refineries.
5. Conceptually design wastewater treatment processes.
6. Evaluate alternative wastewater treatment schemes using specialized software.

Course Outline

In this course students will learn about: water pollution; waste water properties and characterization; refinery waste water treatment; biochemical operations for waste water treatment; secondary and tertiary treatment of waste water; recycle and reuse issues in refineries; sludge management.