Environmental management sustainability in the oil and gas industry through circular economy: carbonisation technology pilot assessment

A collaborative pilot program was conducted to investigate the ability to reduce oil concentrations and amounts of hazardous waste generated from refinery operations using carbonisation process. The pilot test results showed that all 7 hazardous wastes assessed showed high oil removal rates of more than 99.5% and significant weight reduction between 86.6% to 91.1% depending on the source was achieved, with crude oil tank sludge and wastewater bio sludges indicated most effective treatment results. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses showed that toxic metal contents, including mercury were very low in carbonisation char residues. Local emission standard limits were not exceeded in the flue gas stream during testing as they showed compliance below the proposed standard limits. Full regeneration of activated carbon was also demonstrated as part of the pilot results.