Land treatment of petroleum refining wastes

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:7053388

Evans, Jr, G B ^[1]

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1. K.W. Brown Associates, Inc. College Station, TX (USA)

This paper provides an overview of land treatment as practiced by the petroleum refining industry for both hazardous and nonhazardous wastes. The author focuses on the documented performance and environmental risks, especially potential air emissions, associated with the technology. The term land treatment evokes a variety of images, and indeed encompasses a broad range of management objectives, unit configurations, and operating conditions. Furthermore, the treatment of wastes in the soil involves a complex mixture of physical, chemical, and biological processes whose relative importance vary as a function of the specific wastes or constituents involved, and the environmental and management factors acting on the system. In general, however, land treatment may be characterized as the use of the soil system as a slow rate treatment medium to degrade, transform, and/or immobilize wastes and their constituents. Performing the treatment function, it parallels incineration in that near complete destruction of many organic contaminants is achieved. In contrast to incineration, however, land treatment is characterized by very long waste retention times and the notable absence of engineered air emissions controls, but with the added provision for disposal of treated waste residues. With the proper controls on the quality of waste feed both technologies can be effective means of environmentally protective waste treatment.

• OSTI ID: 7053388
• Report Number(s): CONF-880679--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020600 -- Petroleum-- Health & Safety
020800* -- Petroleum-- Waste Management
020900 -- Petroleum-- Environmental Aspects
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294002 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Petroleum
CHEMICAL WASTES
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
GROUND DISPOSAL
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
PETROLEUM REFINERIES
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAFETY
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES