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Abstract
Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is an advanced oxidation process (AOP) which is used in this study for the treatment of wastewater from a petroleum refinery. Bacterial load as well as chemical oxygen demand (COD) has been successfully reduced to approved discharge standards for water reuse purpose. A cavitating reactor with three different geometric configurations was used for the treatment. These reactor configurations include the orifice (CN0) and venturi with different throat diameters (CN1 and CN5). Individual reactor configurations are optimized for processing parameters such as operating pressure and number of passes of the wastewater through the cavitating zone. The maximum bacterial disinfection and COD reduction were obtained using CN5 reactor operated at 5 bar pump discharge pressure and the extent of reduction was found to be 59.17% and 52% respectively. The energy and cost estimation has also been carried out for this treatment process and approximate values are 1.11 kW h/m3of energy usage and 5.54 Rs/m3 (0.078 $/m3) respectively after 10 pass treatment. The disinfection percentage can be further improved by increasing the number of passes and integrating it with other advanced oxidation processes.
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