Treatment of Polluted Water of Asaluyeh Petrochemical Units Using Activated Sludge Method

This study aims to treat polluted waters of Asaluyeh petrochemical units using activated sludge method. In this method the qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted on chemical and biological sludge samples besides ashes resulted from burned sludge. Then, in order to determine an optimal usage of chemical and biological sludge, different approaches were studied, and the most appropriate one, which has technical and economical justifications, was introduced and finally, efforts were made for marketing and communicating with sludge and ash consumer industries. The results of this study showed that because of relatively high humidity of these sludge which requires heat for evaporation, the burning process of the sludge is an expensive method. Also, organic materials comprise a major part of chemical and biological sludge, which considerably decrease after turning into ashes because of burning organic materials and their conversion to gases. Among metal oxides in these three types of chemical and biological sludge and ashes, the iron oxides are the main ones. Our analysis of these ashes and sludge showed that this sludge can be used in order to enhance mechanical resistance in asphalts due to their high organic load index LOI in addition to the presence of silicon and aluminum oxide. The obtained ashes and biological sludge have the capacity to be used as chemical fertilizers in pastures and agricultural lands. The ashes resulted from burning chemical and biological sludge in Mobin petrochemical complex have the capacity to be used in bricks.