Analysis of Petroleum Oily Sludge Produced from Oil-Water Separator

The petroleum oily sludge is formed during the production, transportation, and storage processes as well as in the oil refinery plant. The elemental analysis was performed with samples of petroleum oily sludge collected in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. For the carbon and hydrogen elements, small differences were observed between them, but for the oxygen element, bigger differences between the sludge samples were noticed. They have presented differences in the chemical composition of inorganic and organic parts. The sludge from oil-water separator (OWS) 2 showed a high amount of oil (94.88%), being considered a high value-added residue by the oil industry. In the analyses of saturated, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes (SARA) components, the sludge from the unloading had a high amount of saturates. The inorganic material separated from the sludge of the OWS 2 was characterized, and presented a lot of sulfur (41.57 %). The sludge analyzed showed a high value of organic components, thus such material can be handled and reprocessed in processing units within the oil industry.