Bashneft Water Treatment Facilities Process 65 mil m3 of Wastewater
Bashneft (an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company) has treated approximately 65 million cubic metres of wastewater at the Ufa Refining Complex’s biological waste treatment facilities since their launch and brought them to the full process mode.
This technological complex offers the highest level of purification of industrial, storm water and domestic sewage not only for the Bashneft enterprises, but also for the enterprises of the northern industrial hub of Ufa. The biological waste treatment technology also provides for a 2.5-fold increase in the volume of recycled treated water in technological processes and a reduction in water withdrawal from the Belaya River.
The project to upgrade and launch the Bashneft biological waste treatment complex was implemented as part of the Rosneft 2022 Strategy, which envisages the reduction of environmental impact and consistent modernisation of industrial facilities.
The new complex with a daily capacity of 84,000 cubic metres has no analogues both in Russia and in Eurasia. The basis for the biological waste treatment is the membrane bioreactor technology, which combines traditional biological treatment with membrane separation, i.e. filtration of wastewater through microscopic membrane pores, which allows the removal of all impurities and microorganisms. The final wastewater treatment includes desalting on equipment for reverse electrodialysis, reverse osmosis and ionic exchange to remove heavy metals. The best available technologies were used in the implementation of the project to ensure the environmental effectiveness of the upgrade.
Following the transition of the biological waste treatment complex to industrial operation, the content of pollutants in treated wastewater has decreased as follows:
- petroleum products 3-fold,
- phenols 40.7-fold,
- nitrite ions 16.4-fold,
- nitrate ions 4.9-fold,
- ammonium ions 21.7-fold,
- manganese 22.7-fold,
- zinc 4.3-fold,
- vanadium 10.5-fold,
- sulphate ions 2.6-fold.
The full process mode was preceded by the pilot operation of the biological wastewater treatment. Over this period, work has been carried out to calibrate the wastewater treatment process, build up activated sludge (biocoenosis), set up on-stream analyzers, determine the optimal dosage of reagents, and bring each unit of the treatment plant to design performance.
Additionally, as part of the testing of the biological treatment facilities, a digital platform was introduced that provides data processing and analysis to improve the reliability and service life of the equipment and reduce operating costs.
In the future, the biological treatment facilities of the Ufa Refining Complex are expected to cease withdrawing water from the Belaya River entirely.
Note for Editors:
In 2018, Bashneft began commercial operation of its key environmental facility, a complex of biological treatment facilities. Reconstruction of the complex was completed in the Year of Ecology.
The Bashneft Ufaneftekhim biological treatment plant upgrade project is one of eight key environmental investment projects implemented by Rosneft in cooperation with public environmental authorities. The upgrade project’s financing exceeded 11 billion roubles.
The design capacity of the biological wastewater treatment complex (over 3,500 cubic metres per hour) is meant to accommodate all industrial, storm and household wastewater not only from Bashneft but also from 66 other enterprises of Ufa’s Northern Industrial Hub.
Bashneft is implementing a large-scale nature protection programme in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The level of associated petroleum gas utilisation at the company’s enterprises was raised to 95% and 98% in some regions of the Republic between 2019 and 2020. As part of the long-term programme of reconstruction and re-equipment of field pipelines, the length of replaced pipeline sections increased 2.8 times, to 475 km, in 2019.
In addition, Bashneft continues to build up the number of advanced production waste disposal facilities. Four units operating in the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan allow neutralizing more than 108 thousand tons of cuttings annually.
Rosneft
Information Division
November 23, 2020