Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment

Over 130, 000 metric tonnes of toxic petroleum sludge are generated yearly in Malaysia. The traditional methods of disposing of petroleum sludge are short of providing the much-needed benign treatment. A more robust treatment technique is therefore desirable. The thermal plasma treatment technique i...

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Main Author:	Mohammed, Abubakar Ali
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2019
Subjects:	TP Chemical technology
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/85736/1/AbubakarAliMohammedPSChE2019.pdf
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spelling	my-utm-ep.857362020-07-30T07:30:30Z Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment 2019 Mohammed, Abubakar Ali TP Chemical technology Over 130, 000 metric tonnes of toxic petroleum sludge are generated yearly in Malaysia. The traditional methods of disposing of petroleum sludge are short of providing the much-needed benign treatment. A more robust treatment technique is therefore desirable. The thermal plasma treatment technique is employed to bridge the gap. In this research, a 4.7 kW thermal plasma reactor was designed and fabricated. The output current and the plasma temperature range were 5 – 200 A and 356 – 1694 oC respectively. After the treatment, the morphology of the sludge transformed from jelly-like to crystalline solid. A mass reduction of 36.87 – 91.40% and a total organic compound reduction of 21.47 – 93.76% were achieved in a treatment period of 2 – 5 minutes. The leaching test indicates that the heavy metals were stabilized in the solid, and hence, the solid is safe for secure landfill. The product gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen (H2), water (H2O), methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2) and ethylene (C2H4). The concentrations of the greenhouse gases, CH4 and CO2, were small. The lower heating value and the cold gas efficiency of the gas were 7.40 – 7.86 MJ/Nm3 and 25.22 – 51.90% respectively. The efficiency is within the range of the efficiency of gasification of petroleum sludge in an updraft gasifier. Based on the operating cost estimation, a profit margin of RM 3.11/kg of sludge was achieved. Two quadratic models, one for cold gas efficiency and the other for CO/CO2 ratio were developed. The developed models, using response surface methodology, showed a good fit with correlation coefficients of 99.32% and 99.66% for cold gas efficiency and CO/CO2 ratio respectively. The optimum operating conditions for the treatment were arc current = 188.15 A, plasma gas flow-rate = 31.54 L/min and treatment time = 1.89 min. The optimum responses obtained from the optimization of the reaction system were 52.59% and 1.80 for cold gas efficiency and CO/CO2 ratio respectively with the desirability of 1. Thermal plasma technique is, therefore, an alternative method for treating petroleum sludge. 2019 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/85736/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/85736/1/AbubakarAliMohammedPSChE2019.pdf application/pdf en public http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:131645 phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TP Chemical technology
spellingShingle	TP Chemical technology Mohammed, Abubakar Ali Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment
description	Over 130, 000 metric tonnes of toxic petroleum sludge are generated yearly in Malaysia. The traditional methods of disposing of petroleum sludge are short of providing the much-needed benign treatment. A more robust treatment technique is therefore desirable. The thermal plasma treatment technique is employed to bridge the gap. In this research, a 4.7 kW thermal plasma reactor was designed and fabricated. The output current and the plasma temperature range were 5 – 200 A and 356 – 1694 oC respectively. After the treatment, the morphology of the sludge transformed from jelly-like to crystalline solid. A mass reduction of 36.87 – 91.40% and a total organic compound reduction of 21.47 – 93.76% were achieved in a treatment period of 2 – 5 minutes. The leaching test indicates that the heavy metals were stabilized in the solid, and hence, the solid is safe for secure landfill. The product gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen (H2), water (H2O), methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2) and ethylene (C2H4). The concentrations of the greenhouse gases, CH4 and CO2, were small. The lower heating value and the cold gas efficiency of the gas were 7.40 – 7.86 MJ/Nm3 and 25.22 – 51.90% respectively. The efficiency is within the range of the efficiency of gasification of petroleum sludge in an updraft gasifier. Based on the operating cost estimation, a profit margin of RM 3.11/kg of sludge was achieved. Two quadratic models, one for cold gas efficiency and the other for CO/CO2 ratio were developed. The developed models, using response surface methodology, showed a good fit with correlation coefficients of 99.32% and 99.66% for cold gas efficiency and CO/CO2 ratio respectively. The optimum operating conditions for the treatment were arc current = 188.15 A, plasma gas flow-rate = 31.54 L/min and treatment time = 1.89 min. The optimum responses obtained from the optimization of the reaction system were 52.59% and 1.80 for cold gas efficiency and CO/CO2 ratio respectively with the desirability of 1. Thermal plasma technique is, therefore, an alternative method for treating petroleum sludge.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Mohammed, Abubakar Ali
author_facet	Mohammed, Abubakar Ali
author_sort	Mohammed, Abubakar Ali
title	Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment
title_short	Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment
title_full	Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment
title_fullStr	Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment
title_full_unstemmed	Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment
title_sort	design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering
granting_department	Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering
publishDate	2019
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/85736/1/AbubakarAliMohammedPSChE2019.pdf
_version_	1747818445208027136

Design and fabrication of arc thermal plasma reactor for petroleum sludge treatment

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