Bio-treatment system selected for Haifa refinery

Oil Refineries Ltd. (ORL) awarded USFilter a contract to provide a new biological treatment system at its Haifa, Israel refinery. The US$2 million project, the second for USFilter's Envirex Products at ORL, will utilize Submerged Biological Contactors (SBCs) technology. The new contractors will follow USFilter dissolved gas flotation (DGF) separators previously installed at the site.

Due to recently upgraded discharge regulations for the Kishon River, the existing biological treatment system was not able to meet upgraded discharge regulations for BOD5 and NH3-N. Additionally, ORL planned to reuse much of the 500 m3/hr flow for cooling tower makeup water. ORL engineers chose the SBCs over other fixed-film biological treatment processes to meet these increased discharge and purity requirements because of the technology's cost-efficient, shock resistant process, which requires little operator attention.

The system includes 12 SBCs measuring 5.5 meters diameter by 7.6 meters long, providing a total surface area of 334,400 m2 (3,600,000 ft2). Each SBC is rotated by coarse bubble aeration, requiring no mechanical drive system, which minimizes system maintenance.

SBCs operate at 80% submergence, which offers buoyancy requiring low energy input and the ability to withstand shock loadings, increasing the reliability of the system. Similar systems utilizing the innovative SBC process have been installed at refining operations worldwide.

Source: USFilter