Hidrologia: Pesquisa Atual

Application of Alumina to Oil and Grease Removal from Refinery Effluent

Abstract

Abhinav Norisetty,Jayanta Kumar Basu and Sonali Sengupta

Alumina was synthesized by surface hydrolysis of thin aluminium plate and then applied as an adsorbent to treat the refinery effluent water to reduce the levels of COD(Chemical Oxygen Demand), BOD(Biological Oxygen Demand) and OG(Oil and Grease) content in the effluent to satisfy the prescribed limit. The prepared alumina was characterized based on BET surface area, X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The effects of the amount of adsorbent, temperature and the dilution of the effluent on the reduction of COD, BOD and OG levels were studied. COD, BOD and OG reduction were observed to be 87.83%, 86.6% and 83% at 20°C with an alumina dose of 15 gms per 100 ml effluent. In the equilibrium study, it has been noted that the adsorption capacities of alumina for COD and OG at equilibrium are linearly co-related. The adsorption is of first order and the initial rate constant obtained is 3×10-6 min-1 at 20°C.