BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF A PETROCHEMICAL WASTE-WATER USING SEQUENCING BATCH REACTORS

Characterization and biological treatability studies using sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were conducted for the petrochemical wastewater of Saudi Petrochemical Company (SADAF) at Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia. During wastewater survey, hourly grab samples were collected for one week of the normal plant operation and analyzed for different water pollution parameters. The average concentrations of BOD, TKN and total-P were 69, 2.6 and 19 mgL-1, respectively. Removals of 94% and 87%, respectively, were achieved for BOD and COD in the SBR biotreatment. The introduction of fill and anoxic reaction periods into an SBR cycle improved the quality of the biologically treated effluent.