SINOKLE Ozone Advanced Oxidation Technology Efficiently “Unburdens” Biological Systems

In the petroleum refining industry, electric desalting wastewater, with its complex composition, severe emulsification and poor biodegradability, is often regarded as the "number one problem" for the stable operation of wastewater treatment systems. Fed directly into a biological system, it easily causes microbial poisoning and sludge inactivation, with high treatment costs and fluctuating results. Based on a deep understanding of the industry's pain points, SINOKLE has introduced an innovative ozone advanced oxidation pre-treatment technology, purpose-built to resolve the pre-biological treatment dilemma of electric desalting wastewater and achieve a fundamental shift from "difficult to treat" to "stable and efficient".

Electric desalting wastewater: a burden biological systems struggle to bear

Electric desalting wastewater from refineries is a typical high-concentration, refractory, heavily emulsified industrial wastewater, whose core challenges are:

Stable pollutant structure: rich in complex organics such as phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and petroleum hydrocarbons, with stable molecular structures and a B/C ratio (biodegradability index) often below 0.1, making them directly unusable by microorganisms.

Biological toxicity inhibition: oils, sulfides, high salinity and certain characteristic pollutants significantly inhibit or even poison the microbial community in biological tanks.

Water quality fluctuation shocks: adjustments in production conditions cause frequent fluctuations in water volume and pollutant concentration, posing a continuous challenge to the stability of the treatment system.

Conventional pre-treatment processes (such as ordinary air flotation and chemical demulsification) have limited capacity to degrade these "stubborn" pollutants, so large amounts of refractory organics and toxic substances enter the biological stage directly. This is the root cause of low efficiency in downstream processes, soaring operating costs and difficulty in consistently meeting discharge standards.

Breaking the deadlock: how ozone pre-treatment "turns difficulty into ease"

The core principle of SINOKLE's ozone advanced oxidation pre-treatment technology is not simply "removal" but the "transformation" and "breakthrough" of pollutants through strong oxidation.

Core function one: chain scission and ring opening to improve biodegradability

Ozone and the hydroxyl radicals (OH) it generates catalytically can non-selectively attack the chemical bonds of organic matter, oxidising and decomposing large-molecule, ring-structured refractory pollutants (such as phenols and benzene series) into small-molecule organic acids, aldehydes and other readily biodegradable substances. This process can significantly raise the B/C ratio of the wastewater from below 0.1 to above 0.3, creating a high-quality "food" source for subsequent biological treatment. Studies show that ozone pre-treatment is a key step in improving the biodegradability of hard-to-degrade wastewater.

Core function two: efficient demulsification to break the oil barrier

The strong oxidising action of ozone can effectively destroy the electric double layer on the surface of emulsified oil droplets and the surfactant shell around them, achieving efficient demulsification and oil-water separation. This not only removes the oils that are toxic to and enwrap microorganisms, but also significantly reduces the COD load in the water, clearing the foremost obstacle for the biological system.

Core function three: detoxification to protect microorganisms

By degrading sulfides and some characteristic toxic organics, ozone pre-treatment can effectively reduce the inhibitory toxicity of the wastewater to microorganisms, safeguarding the activity and diversity of the bacterial community in the downstream biological tank and improving the shock-loading resistance of the whole system.

The SINOKLE solution: building pre-treatment advantages through precise oxidation

Compared with conventional ozone applications, SINOKLE provides a precise, efficient and stable customised pre-treatment solution.

Efficient mass transfer technology: proprietary high-efficiency ozone mixing and mass transfer technology ensures full contact and efficient dissolution between ozone gas and wastewater, avoiding ozone escape and maximising oxidation efficiency.

Enhanced catalytic oxidation: tailored to the characteristics of electric desalting wastewater, dedicated catalysts (such as supported metal oxides) can be selected to catalyse ozone into more highly oxidative hydroxyl radicals, improving the removal efficiency of specific refractory pollutants and reducing operating energy consumption.

Intelligent dosage control: based on online water quality monitoring (such as COD and TOC), the ozone dosage is adjusted intelligently to ensure operation at the optimal economic point, cope with water quality fluctuations and achieve stable effluent.

Key technical parameters and application results (typical scenario reference)

Ozone dosage

Range: 50-150 mg/L

Note: adjusted according to the raw water COD concentration and the target; typically 15-25 mg/L of ozone is required for every 100 mg/L reduction in COD.

Reaction time

Range: 30-60 minutes

Note: ensures sufficient reaction; efficient mixing can shorten the time.

B/C ratio improvement

Before treatment: usually <0.1

After treatment: can be raised to >0.4

Note: biodegradability is significantly improved, creating the conditions for biological treatment.

Removal of characteristic pollutants

Phenol removal rate: >= 90%

Benzene series removal rate: >= 80%

Note: efficient breakdown of characteristic refractory substances.

Comprehensive benefits for refining and chemical enterprises

By adopting SINOKLE's ozone pre-treatment technology, enterprises gain not only improved water quality indicators but a systematic improvement in benefits across the entire process.

• Significantly lower biological system operating costs: pre-treatment converts most refractory COD into readily degradable COD, reducing the load on the biological stage by more than 40% and greatly cutting aeration energy consumption, sludge disposal costs and nutrient dosage costs.

• Fundamental assurance of stable compliance: the effective removal of toxic and refractory substances upstream greatly improves the stability of downstream biological and advanced treatment units, completely eliminating the risk of effluent exceedance caused by upstream water quality shocks.

• High return on investment: although a pre-treatment unit is added, by reducing the scale of downstream units (for example, smaller biological tank volume) and saving long-term operating costs, the overall project payback period is usually better than that of conventional process routes.

• Environmental and safety value: toxic substances are reduced at the source, lowering environmental risk; the system is highly automated and safe and simple to operate.