Chemical and thermal characteristics of petrochemical industrial sludge

Industrial sludges have different characteristics even in the same industrial sector. Therefore, the strategy development for the management of industrial sludges is a great challenge interim of sustainable and economic concern. In addition to the legislative restrictions on traditional recycling options including land application, agricultural usage etc., the recovery of energy and valuable materials from industrial sludges becomes progressively more important. Petrochemical industry produces a large amount of sludge having different pollutants, which are mostly hazardous. Recently, the treatment and disposal of petroleum and petro-chemical industry sludges have been an encountering problem regarding their huge amounts and complex structures. To build an appropriate and sustainable management strategy for these sludges, first important stage is the complete and correct characterization of them. However, the sludges are very complicated materials to be epitomized. This paper focused on the chemical and thermal properties of petrochemical industry sludge taken from a petro-chemical industry complex located in Izmir, Turkey to evaluate its suitability for the energy recovery purpose via pyrolysis and/or gasification processes. Experimental results showed that the sludge had high volatile solids content (VS) approx. 69% on dry basis and in accordance with this, had a very high low heating value of 26.30 MJ/kg. Thermal gravimetric analysis results also supported these findings showing the decomposition of major organic compounds available in the sludge. The paper discusses the experimental results on whether it could be a significant fuel for energy recovery purpose or not.