Refinery Wastewater Pretreatment: A Basket Filter Application in Russia

A practical refinery wastewater case showing how upstream basket filtration can remove oily sludge and suspended solids before biological treatment.

Refinery wastewater can contain a combination of suspended solids, oily sludge and other process residues. When the solids load is high, removing part of it before biological treatment can help improve the stability of the downstream process.

A wastewater pretreatment project at a Russian refinery provides a practical example.

The Initial Situation

The refinery was handling wastewater containing significant amounts of oily sludge and suspended solids.

The concern was the impact of these contaminants on the downstream biological treatment stage.

If larger solids and sludge continued into the biological process, they could increase the operating load and contribute to problems in equipment such as aeration tanks.

The customer therefore needed an upstream filtration stage capable of removing larger contaminants before biological treatment.

The Filtration Arrangement

A YUBO TGF-600G high-capacity basket filter was installed at the front end of the wastewater pipeline.

The basket filter was used as a mechanical pretreatment stage.

Its purpose was to capture larger suspended particles and oily sludge before the wastewater entered the biological treatment process.

This allowed the filtration stage to handle part of the solids load before it reached the downstream process.

Project Results

After the filtration stage was installed, the influent to the biological treatment process became more stable.

The project also helped reduce the operating load on downstream processes.

The reported overall wastewater treatment efficiency increased by approximately 30%.

The project illustrates why upstream mechanical filtration can be useful in industrial wastewater treatment.

Rather than replacing biological treatment, a basket filter can be used before it to reduce the amount of larger solids and sludge entering the downstream process.

What Should Be Considered When Selecting a Pretreatment Filter?

The appropriate filtration equipment depends on the actual wastewater conditions.

Important considerations include:

Type and concentration of suspended solids

Presence of oily sludge

Required filtration function

Flow conditions

Cleaning and maintenance requirements

Conditions of the downstream treatment process

A basket filter is one option for applications where larger suspended contaminants need to be removed before subsequent treatment.

For the Russian refinery project, the TGF-600G was used specifically as an upstream filtration stage.

The complete case study is available here: YUBO Refinery Wastewater Pretreatment Case Study