The integrated refinery-planning (IRP), an instrumental problem in the petroleum industry, is made of several subsystems, each of them involving a large number of decisions. Despite the complexity of the overall planning problem, this work presents a mathematical model of the refinery operations characterized by complete horizontal integration of subsystems from crude oil purchase through to pr...

While petroleum industry studies have indicated low benzene exposure potential for refinery workers, most provide limited data for assessing job or task-related benzene exposures. This study characterizes job and task-specific airborne benzene concentrations and variability over time for the ExxonMobil refinery in Joliet, Illinois from 1977 to 2006. A database of 2289 industrial hygiene air sam...

The mineralisation kinetics of petroleum refinery effluent (PRE) by Fenton oxidation were evaluated. Within the ambit of the experimental data generated, first-order kinetic model (FKM), generalised lumped kinetic model (GLKM), and generalized kinetic model (GKM) were tested. The obtained apparent kinetic rate constants for the initial oxidation step (k'2), their final oxidation step (k'1), and...

A 25-year-old man, a field operator in a petroleum refinery was found unconscious. He was exposed to hydrogen sulfide and presented with Glasgow Coma Score of 5, severe hypoxemia on arterial blood gas analysis, normal chest radiography, and normal blood pressure. On hospital day 7, his mental state became clear, and neurologic examination showed quadriparesis, profound spasticity, increased ten...

This research involves the design and analysis of pinch-based water/wastewater networks to minimize water utility in the petrochemical and petroleum industries. A study has been done on Tehran Oil Refinery to analyze feasibilities of regeneration, reuse and recycling of water network. COD is considered as a single key contaminant. Amount of freshwater was reduced about 149m/h (43.8%) regarding ...

Ligninolytic white rot fungus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, isolated from soil sample of petroleum refinery, was used for degradation of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs: acenaphthene, anthracene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene), simultaneously and individually in sterile and unsterile soil. For maximum biodegradation, after 42 days of incubation, optimum conditions were pH 7....

The present study investigated the influence of packing material characteristics on the electricity generation performance, treatment efficiency and degradation mechanism of petroleum pollutants over microbial fuel cells (MFCs) using petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) as fuel. The granule graphite (GG) and granule-activated carbon (GAC) were used to MFCs as packing materials, respectively. GG-...

The relationship between toxicity and soil contamination must be understood to develop reliable indicators of environmental restoration for bioremediation. Two bacterial rapid bioassays, SOS chromotest and the umu test with and without metabolic activation (S-9 mixture), were used to evaluate the genotoxicity of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil following bioremediation treatment. The soi...

This paper presents a Genetic Algorithm-based method to optimize the production schedule of the fuel oil and asphalt section in a petroleum refinery. Two Genetic Algorithm models were developed to establish the sequence and size of all production shares. A special mutation operator was also proposed to minimize the number of changes in the production. A multi-objective fitness evaluation techni...

Contamination of soil / water resources by petroleum products poses severe threats to underground water and soil quality. In the present study biosurfactant producing bacterial cultures were used to degrade petrol engine oil under in situ conditions in the plant rhizosphere system. Two bacterial isolates used in this study were recovered from Haldia oil refinery sites and identified as Pseudomo...