PLANT DESIGN I (PDP1)

Design Problem Statement

MEMORANDUM

To: Design Engineers, CDB4014 January-2021 Semester

From: Ir Dr Khor Cheng Seong
Date: 5 January 2020
Subject: Plant Design for Resource Recovery of Industrial Wastewater

There is potential for resource recovery to increase the sustainability of waste disposal and
management. As a process design consultant, you and your team are requested by a client to purify a
raw effluent water stream that is oily wastewater from a manufacturing site. The aim is to recover and
upgrade its resources that have potential commercial value. The wastewater (i.e., raw material)
characteristics is given in Table 1.

Your design must consider and meet the following requirements:

1. include at least TWO different reaction systems as part of the purification process to convert a
recovered resource from the wastewater into a value-added product;
2. ensure that the final treated wastewater meets the appropriate environmental discharge limits.

The goal is to develop and evaluate several process design alternatives. Your team is required to design
a cost-effective plant that demonstrates the following features:
(a) gives top priority to environmental, safety, and health concerns according to the local laws and
regulations;
(b) minimize energy (utility) consumption to the extent economically justified. The design is to
include processing facilities that locate within the battery limits thus no off-site or utility plant is
required. Give consideration if possibilities for heat integration exist by examining the main
process heat sources and sinks;
(c) use current utilities price which include both saturated and superheated steam at appropriate
pressure levels, cooling water, utility water, fuel gas, nitrogen, instrument air, electricity, and
others as required.

Table 1. Wastewater stream attributes

Oily Water Oily Surface Water Ballast Water

Item Unit Average Range Average Range Average Range
Temperature C 38 30–40 15 5–25 15 5–20
pH − 7.5 5–11 7 6–8 7 6–8
BOD mg/L 232 100–800 10 5–50 50 10–150
COD mg/L 613 100–2000 20 5–200 100 10–500
Suspended solids mg/L 162 30–500 20 10–500 50 20–100
Oil mg/L 350 100–2000 50 10–150 1000 500–2000
Sulphides mg/L 15 0–50 – – 3 0–10
Phenols mg/L 10 0–100 – – 2 0–20
Chlorides mg/L 500 100–1000 – – 12000 5000–20000
NH3, NH4–N mg/L 25 10–70 – – 5 0–10
Total nitrogen mg/L 40 15–100 – – 8 0–20
Total phosphorus mg/L <1 0–3 – – – –
Total flow rate m3/h 20–50

Special instructions on use of data in Table 1:

• Groups 1–12: below average values (within given range)
• Groups 13–24: average values (as given)
• Groups 25–35: above average values (within given range)