Application of organic polymeric flocculants in centrifugal dewatering of oil refinery sludge.

In order to evaluate the applicability of the organic polymeric flocculants (OPF) in the treatment of oil refinery sludge, experiments were conducted to show that OPF have better performance of flocculation than inorganic flocculants. Both the anionic and cationic OPF have satisfactory flocculation efficiency in oil sludge treatment, but the latter are more cost-efficient. Among the over 20 types of flocculants tested, 2 OPF (CPAM-2 and HPAM-2) were selected as the treatment agents, based on their good treatment performances, oil-resistance and economic feasibility. It was demonstrated in the industrial-scale centrifugal dewatering experiments that the application of either CPAM-2 or HPAM-2 could achieve high treatment efficiency of the oil sludge dewatering and reduce the COD of centrifugal liquid to less than 1000 mg/L.