Gazprom Neft’s Omsk refinery advances biological wastewater treatment plant

PJSC Gazprom Neft subsidiary JSC Gazpromneft-ONPZ has started installation of equipment for its previously announced biosphere closed-loop wastewater treatment plant as part of the second phase of the operator’s ongoing modernization program to reduce environmental impacts and improve processing capacities, conversion rates, energy efficiency, and production qualities at its 430,000-b/d Omsk refinery in Western Siberia (OGJ Online, Feb. 8, 2017).

Installation of key equipment for filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment units is currently ongoing as part of construction of the biosphere treatment plant that, once in operation, will guarantee up to 99.9% water purity to enable the refinery to return more than 70% of treated water to production, reducing the burden on municipal wastewater treatment plants, Gazprom Neft and Gazpromneft-ONPZ said.

Scheduled for startup in 2021, the 19 billion-rubles biosphere treatment project—which comes as part of the Russian federal government’s master plan for its Clean Air and Ecology projects adopted under a decree from President Vladimir Putin in May 2018—will include a multistage water-purification system composed of mechanical, physical, chemical, and biological treatments, as well as capabilities for carbon filtration and ultraviolet disinfection, according to the operator.

Moscow refinery biosphere plant

Gazprom Neft subsidiary JSC Gazpromneft-MNPZ commissioned a similar biosphere treatment plant at its 244,000-b/d Moscow refinery in 2017, which has equipped the refinery to achieve a nearly two-fold reduction in its water consumption for refining processes in 2019, Gazprom Neft said (OGJ Online, Oct. 30, 2015).

During the 2 years since its startup, the Moscow biosphere treatment plant additionally has enabled a nearly five-fold reduction in the refinery’s consumption of river water, as well as permitted nearly 80% of treated process wastewater to return to the production cycle, with the remainder sent to city treatment facilities. Wastewater volumes from the refinery, however—as well as their burden on city treatment systems—have fallen more than three times from pre-2017 levels since commissioning of the biosphere plant, according to Gazprom Neft.

Gazprom Neft said its total investment in both the Moscow and Omsk biosphere treatment plants currently stands at more than 28 billion rubles, reflective of the fact that environmental projects are increasingly becoming an integral part of the technological modernization of any modern oil refinery.