Integral evaluation of a stripping to recover sulphurous waters in the Cienfuegos soil Refinery

Abstract

At the Cienfuegos refinery, an increase in water consumption and waste generation is expected, without there being a treatment technology that allows its reuse. The objective of this study is to fully evaluate a stripping tower to determine its rehabilitation and to process sulfurous wastewater, reducing production costs and impact on the environment. In this sense, a diagnosis of the technical water system was carried out that made it possible to identify opportunities for water reuse using the Water Pinch methodology, based on the concentration levels of effluents, which led to a decrease in environmental impact with the introduction of a new distribution network. Subsequently, a technical-economic-environmental evaluation was carried out to support the technological improvement proposal. In the technical evaluation, the process is simulated using the ProMax® 2.0 simulator for the case study, which allowed obtaining the operating parameters of said tower. The avoided eco-costs are calculated that allowed to demonstrate the viability and sustainability of the improvement proposal. As a result, the recovery of the tower and the reuse of 98% of the technical water is achieved and the reduction of costs and environmental impact of the same, representing an annual saving of 667,757 m3 of water, equivalent to a decrease of 1,035 023 CUC in production costs, at a rate of 1,55 CUC / m3 of water.