SANTOS, E. G.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/3306805345463372; SANTOS, Elba Gomes dos.
Resumo:
In the petroleum exploration and processes, a great amount of water is produced
together with the oil and natural gas. This wastewater needs an appropriate
treatment before discarded or reused, due to the great amount of organic pollutant
content. In the petroleum industry, adsorption has get attention, because its
efficiency in the treatment of effluents. Adsorption has been proposed because its
advantages compared with other conventional purification process. Among the
adsorbent materials, the biomass has great importance due to its low cost,
availability, and easy disposal. Kinetics and equilibrium experiments used the
biomass: corn cob, wooden, coconut mesocarp and sugar cane bagasse in their
natural form, showed that coconut mesocarp and sugar cane bagasse had been
adjusted to be used in fixed bed column showed values of 13 mUg de gasoline for
biomass, Fixed bed experiments were made of adsorption of organic pollutants,
using coconut mesocarp and sugar cane bagasse in synthetic showed that the
experimental system adsorbed completely the organic contaminant. The obtained
results adjusted well wit Thomas mode. A real effluent obtained in the oilfield
Guamare, in the Rio Grande do Norte state of Brazil, was used in this work. Water
with 100 and 50 ppm oil was treaded in a fixed bed column. Effluent concentration
at the top of the fixed bed was analyzed by spectrophotometry. Breakthrough
curves obtained from the experimental concentration were used to estimate
adsorption parameters: adsorption capacity and mass transfer coefficient. The
results obtained show that biomass is viable as adsorbent for organic pollutant
and, once the appropriate hydrocarbons/biomass ratio is considered, it is possible
to eliminate almost all contaminants in the wastewater and some heavy metals.