Remediation of oil refinery wastewater implementing functionalized mesoporous materials MCM-41 in batch and continuous adsorption process

The current study investigated the performance of the adsorption process for the remediation of secondary treated wastewater from the Al-Daura Oil Refinery in Central Iraq, employing batch and continuous (fixed-bed column) adsorption systems. A functionalized mesoporous material with amine groups (NH2-MCM-41) was used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of various types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) compounds. The highest removal efficiency of PAHs in batch and continuous adsorption systems were 85.7% and 74.24%, respectively. The batch adsorption system was operated based on our earlier work, using the NH2-MCM- 41 dosage = 0.4 g/L, time = 50 min, rpm = 200, and pH = 7. For this case, the removal efficiency of the chemical oxygen demand was 45%. The fixed-bed column (i.e., bed height = 8 cm, flow rate = 1 mL/min, and pH = 7) showed a removal efficiency of 40%-66% for the chemical oxygen demand as well as 74.24% PAHs degradation. The results indicated that functionalized MCM-41 can be used as an effective adsorbent for the removal of different types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds using either batch or continuous (fixed- bed column) adsorption systems in oil refineries.

Automated summary

The study showed that NH2-MCM-41 is an effective adsorbent for the removal of PAHs compounds in secondary treated wastewater from the Al-Daura Oil Refinery, with removal efficiencies of 85.7% in batch and 74.24% in continuous adsorption systems. The fixed-bed column operated with a bed height of 8cm, flow rate of 1mL/min, and pH of 7, achieved removal efficiencies of 40%-66% for chemical oxygen demand and 74.24% for PAHs degradation.