Case Study: OPTI Canada Uses Zimpro® Wet Air Oxidation System To Destroy Soot In Wastewater Generated During The Production Of Syngas

Challenge
OPTI Canada's Long Lake Project needed a system that would reduce costs associated with landfill disposal and waste for their "next generation" oil sands development, which integrates established and proprietary technologies.

Combining Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) with OPTI Canada's proprietary OrCrude™ technology, hydrocracking and gasification, this system produces a premium synthetic crude oil. The Long Lake Project is expected to produce 58,500 b/d of products, primarily 39° API premium sweet synthetic crude oil.

Asphaltenes from the OrCrude process go into a gasifier, which produces syngas (a mixture of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen used to generate the steam required for the SAGD process and to further upgrade the synthetic crude) and a soot waste product – which requires off-site disposal.

Solution
A Zimpro® wet air oxidation system was chosen to treat the soot slurry for its ability to:

• Dramatically reduce the amount of wastewater solids requiring off-site disposal
  
• Make valuable metals in soot available for recovery as a potentially valuable product.

Wet oxidation is the oxidation of soluble or suspended components in waste water using oxygen as the oxidizing agent. When air is used, the process is referred to as wet air oxidation. Zimpro® Wet Oxidation and Wet Air Oxidation (WAO) systems are used primarily for treatment of high strength industrial wastewater streams.

Result
Adding the Zimpro® wet air oxidation unit to the gasification process will reduce soot volume to about 10 percent of its original volume, substantially reducing the amount of material to be disposed. Ultimately, the system reduces costs associated with landfill disposal and waste. In addition, the Zimpro wet air oxidation system will allow the recovery of valuable materials present in the soot, like nickel and vanadium.

SOURCE: Siemens Industry, Inc. - Water Technologies