Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

One of the major challenges facing the oil industries is the environmentally sound management of their by-products. Among them is the produced water (AP), an effluent composed of oils, gases, and other components capable of causing environmental degradation. In this context, it is necessary to study and evaluate methodologies to associate development and environment, trying to establish sustainable relations between both. Thus, the main objective of this research is to compare the adsorption process of coffee (commercial and residual) and active carbon of medium particle size (4mm) in a sample of produced water made available by Petrobras (RN). Adsorption is approached as a way to mitigate environmental impacts, as it enables the retention of particles on the solid surface, optimizing the reuse of the effluent in other activities. We can classify the research as bibliographic, to the extent that it appropriated the resolutions of the National Environmental Council (CONAMA) for its development; and experimental, because it conducted laboratory tests in order to compare them with the specific literature. The results obtained showed that after the effluent passed through the three forms of adsorption, the active carbon presented better performance in relation to coffee, since it obtained more significant results in relation to turbidity. This efficiency can be justified by the fact that coal is an adsorbent with higher porosity and interaction with hydrocarbon chains, besides being proportional to the mass of adsorbent used: the higher the amount of adsorbent, the higher the adsorption.