What is sour water at a refinery?

Asked by: Maureen Green

Sour water is produced in refinery process units, as water is used for steam stripping and quenching. Sour water is contaminated mostly with ammonia (NH₃) and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), which must be removed before the water is recycled back into the process.

What is the meaning of sour water?

Sour Water is the wastewater that is produced from atmospheric and vacuum crude columns at refineries. Hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are typical components in sour water that need to be removed before the water can be reused elsewhere in the plant.

Is Sour water Toxic?

This product contains Hydrogen sulphide which may accumulate in confined spaces. Inhalation of Hydrogen sulphide may cause loss of sense of smell, major irritation of the respiratory tract, headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and fluid buildup in the lungs (pulmonary edema), which can be fatal.

What is sour process?

Sour gas treatment involves using amine solutions to remove acid gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) from hydrocarbon gas in refineries and gas plants.

What is stripped water?

In a refinery, sour water must be cleaned of its sulfide content before being recycled or released to the environment. This cleaning process is known as “stripping” because it flows gas (air or steam) through the sour water to strip H₂S and NH₃ out of the water.

Is Sour water flammable?

This material is generally not flammable; however, it may contain hydrogen sulfide which is extremely flammable, or crude oil, condensate or natural gas, all of which are flammable.

What is phenolic water?

Phenolic compounds exist in water bodies due to the discharge of polluted wastewater from industrial, agricultural and domestic activities into water bodies. They also occur as a result of natural phenomena.

Is produced water hazardous?

Hazard Identification

Produced water may contain crude oil or condensate and may accumulate a layer of oil on its surface; the oil is flammable and may contain benzene which is a carcinogen. Along with oil or condensate, natural gas can get entrained or become dissolved in produced water.

What is the flash point of h2s?

Hydrogen sulfide

What is the difference between stripping and distillation?

What is the difference between stripping and distillation? The primary difference is in the method used to separate the feed’s constituents. While distillation uses heat to boil the volatiles into vapor and then condense and remove them, stripping uses the principles of absorption.

What is the difference between absorption and stripping?

Absorption is used to separate gas mixtures, remove impurities, or recover valuable chemicals. The operation of removing the absorbed solute from the solvent is called stripping. Absorbers are normally used with strippers to permit regeneration (or recovery) and recycling of the absorbent.

What is stripping why it is done?

Stripping the membranes is a way to induce labor. It involves your doctor sweeping their (gloved) finger between the thin membranes of the amniotic sac in your uterus. It’s also known as a membrane sweep.

What is stripping in solvent extraction?

Conventional SX stripping removes the metal loaded in the organic by contacting it with a small volume of a concentrated aqueous eluant. The organic extractant is regenerated to its acid or uncomplexed form and the SX loaded metal is exchanged into a concentrated strip liquor.

What is solvent stripping?

SOLVENT STRIPPER is a solvent-based wax stripper to use on deep cleaning of dirt and organic residues, oxidation, layers of old wax or existing treatments. Its action works deep down, helping to dissolve and easily remove even the most stubborn dirt and greasy or oily surface stains.

What is vacuum stripping?

Abstract. The vacuum stripping process is used for the deodorization of neutral bleached oils as well as for the physical refining of degummed bleached oils. In the process, hot oil is exposed to a large volume of stripping medium, which causes the most volatile constituents of the oil to vaporize.

What does stripping someone mean?

To remove, take, or steal something from someone or something, especially in a forceful or brutish manner; to deprive someone or something of something.

What is a industrial stripper?

Paint stripping agents are used in woodworking, home improvement, construction, and other industrial settings to chemically break the bond paint forms with the surface it is applied to. This then allows paint to be easily removed.

How does steam stripping work?

Understanding Steam Stripping

The steam rises in the column and flows upward, countercurrent to the water. Often packing, trays or other materials are placed in the column to increase the surface contact between the steam and water, resulting in greater contaminant removal.

What is Airtrip process?

Air stripping is the process of moving air through contaminated groundwater or surface water in an above-ground treatment system. Air stripping removes chemicals called “volatile organic compounds” or “VOCs.” VOCs are chemicals that easily evaporate, which means they can change from a liquid to a vapor (a gas).

Why is steam added to a distillation column?

Stripping steam is put at the bottom of Crude distillation column for Reduced Crude Oil cut to avoid escape of lighters from crude distillation column . The heater outlet temperature is the maximum obtained without experiencing cracking.

What are the components of a stripper?

A steam stripper consists of a supply pump with heat exchanger, a packed or dish column, a condenser with a separation drum and a reflux device, and a decanter.

What is the difference between scrubbing and stripping?

Stripping is the complete removal of any finish on the floor by means of a harsh stripping solution and aggressive stripping pad. Scrubbing is the removal of one coat of dirty/damaged finish and application of one or two coats of finish to rebuild rather than fully replace.

What is stripping in refinery?

Stripping is a physical separation process where one or more components are removed from a liquid stream by a vapor stream. In industrial applications the liquid and vapor streams can have co-current or countercurrent flows. Stripping is usually carried out in either a packed or trayed column.

What is the difference between stripper and splitter?

I am currently working in Naphtha hydro treater, In our naphtha hydro treater stripper and Splitter both column is there, stripper is for removal of h2s and splitter is for removal light naphtha.

What does a naphtha stabilizer do?

A naphtha stabilizer is essentially a debutanizer, specified and designed to remove most of the butanes and lighter components from the unstabilized (or “wild”, or “raw”) naphtha.

What is a reflux ratio?

The reflux ratio is defined as the ratio of the liquid returned to the column divided by the liquid removed as product, i.e., R = L_c/D.