Oily Water Separator

[jfreddy]

Hi everyone. I am seeking some advice as to weather a oily water separator is required for a Diesel Power plant. The diesel plant installed capacity is 3.3 MW (3 X 1.1 MW engines). The diesel storage capacity is 50,000 gallons.

Based on my experience with power plants oily water separator is required in Heavy Fuel oil power plants. Looking forward for your comments.

 

[MFJewell]

All my experience is along the Gulf Coast of the US, so this may or may not be applicable to your particular site depending on what the local jurisdiction deems acceptable. That said, an oily water separator will be required anywhere you plan to discharge wastewater to natural bodies of water (lake, stream, river) if your normal effluent has Oil and Grease content higher than permitted allowance. If you have curbed containment that holds the full volume of oil that could be spilled plus 10%, you may get permitted with out one. You will still be required to monitor at the outfall to ensure you are not exceeding permitted limits.

 

[LittleInch]

Depends if you have oily water or is everything under shelter or in a building?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[jfreddy]

@LittleInch, the engines are placed in an enclosed building. As for the fuel storage tanks, they are placed in a concrete bund wall designed to hold 110% of the storage tanks capacity.

The only case I foresee for oily water is probably when it rains and maybe with little drops from any leakage, if any. I consider this to be minor. There is no process water from the power plant operation.

 

[LittleInch]

Then probably not. How is the fuel transported? If it comes in by trick then around the offloading area you will get spillages and oily water which will need to go through an interceptor. If by pipe them maybe not. You will need to monitor the water in the bund before releasing it.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[jfreddy]

The fuel is transported via a pipeline. I think once proper maintenance is done to avoid leaks then an oily water might not be required. I am still looking forward for others to share their experiences in diesel power plant industry.

 

[MFJewell]

I am still looking forward for others to share their experiences in diesel power plant industry

Just to clarify, my experience above is in the power plant industry. We had many units that were natural gas only and many units that were dual fuel (diesel or natural gas). All of them ended up with oil water separators as part of the waste water system.

Are your units recips or CTs and what ancillary systems are included in the plant design (evap cooling, water wash, etc.)? That will make a difference in water usage. If they are recips with no water consumption, why not permit the site as zero liquid discharge?

 

[jfreddy]

@MFJewell The units are reciprocating with no mechanical ancillary systems.

 

[MFJewell]

I would do everything I could to permit it without an oil water separator then.

 

[bimr]

An oil water separator is not required. However the design should meet the requirements of the SPCC plan which it appears you have already considered with the bund.

 

[GD2]

Any Reciprocating equipment will have a crankcase full of lube oil and other lubrating oil injection points all over the compressor. Usually the compressor floor have open drains that will carry oily wash water from maintenance and compressor leaks. I am not sure how you release the drain water to the environment but for sure you need to think about separation.




Ganga D. Deka, P. Eng
Canada