Water Balance in a Refinery and Water Reuse Options: Building an Auxiliary Tool for Water Resources Management

The main purpose of this study is to conduct a survey on the detailed Water Balance of Paulinia Refinery, focusing all process units so as to allow its use as data basis for the management of water resources that are consumed there in different forms (natural water, process water, for the fire prevention system, drinkable, demineralized, steam etc,). The main result shows that 61.5% of the total water collected by the refinery does not reach the effluents treatment station, that is, losses occur during the processes, mainly due to the evaporation in the cooling towers, an intrinsic process factor. Another important identified aspect refers to the relation between equipment maintenance and the consequent water waste. Once these problems are solved, it is estimated that the collection could be reduced by 6.4% and the effluents generation by 16.9%.