How to Treat Water with Excessive Acidity?

In industrial production, the treatment of acidic water has long been an important topic in environmental protection. Such water usually contains high concentrations of sulfides, ammonia nitrogen, phenols and other pollutants, with low pH - difficult to treat. With its innovative wastewater treatment technology, SINOKLE provides an efficient and reliable solution for acidic water treatment.

Characteristics and treatment difficulties of acidic water

Acidic water mainly comes from refining, chemical and coking processes. Its typical features are high oil content (up to 500-3000 mg/L), high suspended solids (e.g., coke powder 50-200 mg/L), and complex, variable pollutants. Oil droplets are small (high proportion below 5 μm) and severely emulsified, so traditional methods often fail to separate them effectively.

Acidic water treatment faces multiple challenges:

• High pollutant concentrations affect downstream treatment - e.g., strippers clog easily, causing unplanned shutdowns;

• Sulfides and ammonia nitrogen produce irritating odors, affecting the environment and employee health;

• Direct discharge brings enormous environmental pressure to enterprises.

SINOKLE's innovative technical solution

CDFU cyclonic dissolved air flotation technology

SINOKLE's core technology CDFU (cyclonic dissolved air flotation) unit integrates cyclonic separation, dissolved air flotation and ultrafine bubble technology to efficiently remove oil and suspended solids from acidic water. The bubbles are only 5-30 microns in diameter, greatly improving oil-water separation - single-stage oil removal above 90%.

Fig. CDFU working process schematic

Multi-stage combined processes

For different water quality characteristics, SINOKLE offers several process combinations:

· High-concentration conditions: coalescing pressure deoiler + multi-phase cyclone filter + KHC coalescing oil-water separator combination

· Conventional conditions: multi-phase cyclone filter + KHC coalescing oil-water separator

· Complex conditions: coarse filter + CDFU + fine filter + KHC high-efficiency coalescing oil-water separator

Fig. Process flow diagram for highly emulsified acidic water treatment

Technical advantages and innovative features

High-efficiency treatment performance

SINOKLE's technology can reduce inlet oil from ≤5000 mg/L to ≤50 mg/L, with significant suspended solids removal. In a refinery project in Chad, Africa, with a treatment capacity of 20 m³/h and inlet oil ≤500 ppm, outlet oil was reduced to ≤15 ppm (excluding dissolved oil).

Intelligent operation control

The equipment has a fully automatic PLC control system with intelligent backwashing and remote monitoring, greatly reducing labor costs. The system is highly shock-resistant, adapting to ±30% flow fluctuations for stable operation under complex conditions.

Economic and environmental benefits

Compared with traditional gravity settling, SINOKLE's technology cuts operating costs by 20%-30% and footprint by 2/3. For a 50 m³/h project, about 1584 tons of light oil can be recovered per year, creating significant economic benefits.

Actual application case

Fig. Case of emulsified acidic water treatment project at a Sinopec petrochemical company in Henan

The project has a treatment capacity of 15 m³/h with inlet oil as high as 150000 ppm (15%). Using the combined process of coarse filter + CDFU + fine filtration + KHC high-efficiency coalescing oil-water separator, outlet oil is stably at ≤50 ppm, effectively solving the high-concentration acidic water challenge.

Technology development prospects

SINOKLE continues to innovate and has obtained more than 30 patents, including 7 invention patents and 1 PCT international patent. Innovations such as its ultra-micro nano bubble generation technology and special super-hydrophilic material modification are driving acidic water treatment toward greater efficiency and environmental friendliness.

As environmental requirements grow stricter, SINOKLE's acidic water treatment solutions - with innovative technology and stable performance - provide strong technical support for industrial enterprises to achieve environmental compliance and sustainable development. Its successful practice not only solves the industry's current technical problems, but also sets a new benchmark for industrial wastewater treatment.