Siemens delivers another wet air oxidation system to Sinopec  

Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany; www.siemens.com/water) is providing another Zimpro wet air oxidation (WAO) system to treat wastewater at Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Co.’s facility, near the Yangzi River in Jiangsu Province, China. The most recent of seven Zimpro WAO systems installed at Sinopec facilities will be used to treat sulfidic spent caustic wastewater streams generated in the production of petrochemicals. The WAO system is designed to eliminate odorous sulfide pollutants and generate a biodegradable effluent that can be discharged to conventional biological wastewater treatment. Using the Siemens technology will help make petrochemical production more environmentally friendly. The Yangzi system will treat approximately 4 m3/h (17.6 gal/min) of wastewater. The system is anticipated to be operational by the end of 2012. Wet oxidation is the oxidation of soluble or suspended components in an aqueous environment using oxygen as the oxidizing agent. When air is used as the source of oxygen, the process is referred to as wet air oxidation (WAO). The process will oxidize odorous reduced sulfur species such as sulfides and mercaptides. The system will also break down complex organic contaminants, such…