Hydrocarbon wastewater is a common type of wastewater in chemical production. This kind of wastewater is mainly used in petrochemical industry, natural gas processing and organic synthesis industry. Due to the large amount of volatile organic compounds contained in hydrocarbon wastewater, these substances pose a serious threat to human health and the environment.
At present, the methods of treating hydrocarbon wastewater mainly include physical, chemical and biological methods. Each of these three methods is described below.
Physical Law. Physical methods mainly include adsorption, extraction, distillation, etc. In the case of hydrocarbon wastewater, the organic matter can be removed by adsorption. Commonly used adsorbents are activated carbon, resins, etc., which can effectively adsorb hydrocarbons in wastewater. In addition, extraction is also a common treatment method, in which hydrocarbons are extracted from wastewater by selecting the appropriate extractant and then separated. The distillation method is to use the immiscible properties of hydrocarbons and water to evaporate water through heating, leaving hydrocarbons.
Chemical method. Chemical methods mainly include combustion method, wet oxidation method and electrochemical method. The combustion method is to convert the organic matter in wastewater into harmless carbon dioxide and water by combustion. The wet oxidation method uses oxygen or air to oxidize and decompose organic matter in wastewater into harmless substances under high temperature and high pressure conditions. The electrochemical law uses the principle of electrolysis to oxidize or reduce the organic matter in wastewater to harmless substances on the electrode.
Biological law. The biological method is to use the metabolism of microorganisms to treat organic matter in wastewater. For hydrocarbon wastewater, it can be treated in two ways: anaerobic biological treatment and aerobic biological treatment. Anaerobic biological treatment is the use of anaerobic microorganisms to decompose organic matter in wastewater into harmless substances such as methane and carbon dioxide under anaerobic conditionsAerobic biological treatment is the use of aerobic microorganisms to oxidize and decompose organic matter in wastewater into harmless substances such as water and carbon dioxide under aerobic conditions.