Case Study On Wastewater Treatment Technology of Coal Chemical Industry in China

Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and
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ISSN: 1064-3389 (Print) 1547-6537 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/best20
Case study on wastewater treatment technology

of coal chemical industry in China
Jingxin Shi, Chunyan Xu, Yuxing Han & Hongjun Han
To cite this article: Jingxin Shi, Chunyan Xu, Yuxing Han & Hongjun Han (2020): Case study
on wastewater treatment technology of coal chemical industry in China, Critical Reviews in
Environmental Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/10643389.2020.1742530
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CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2020.1742530
Case study on wastewater treatment technology of coal

chemical industry in China
a
Jingxin Shi , Chunyan Xua, Yuxing Hanb, and Hongjun Hana
a
State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of
Technology, Harbin, China; bSchool of Engineering, South China Agriculture University,
Guangzhou, China
ABSTRACT
Coal chemical energy industry has
developed rapidly due to the pri-
mary position of coal in energy
reserves in China. At the same
time, coal chemical industry is
also a high-water consumption
industry. What’s more, coal chem-
ical wastewater contains high
concentration of phenols, NH3-N,
and toxic and harmful substances.
In the study, an all-round investi-
gation on wastewater treatment
technologies was conducted in
projects of the coal chemical
industry. These data were ana-
lyzed in detail from the aspects of
coal-to-gas project, coal-to-oil project, and coal-to-olefin project. In pretreatment, phenol
ammonia recovery device is the key section. At present, the process of first de-ammonia
with gas stripping method and then de-phenolization with extraction method is mostly
adopted in China. In microbiological treatment system, serious odor is diffused around
the sewage treatment facilities. Thus, negative pressure extraction measures should be
adopted in the microbiological treatment system. In addition, there is no suitable
method for the treatment of concentrated brine and crystal salt, so it needs further
study. Finally, this research can provide references for the problems of wastewater envir-
onment restriction existing in the long-term development of coal chemical industry.
KEYWORDS Coal chemical wastewater; pretreatment; microbiological treatment
1. Introduction
China’s energy structure is characterized by “rich coal, poor oil and gas”,
which determines that the development in China cannot be steady
conducted without coal (Zhao et al., 2013). In order to alleviate the contra-
diction between supply and demand of petroleum, natural gas, and other
CONTACT Jingxin Shi 15667087192@163.com State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and
Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; Yuxing Han yuxinghan@scau.edu.cn
School of Engineering, South China Agriculture University, Guangzhou, China.
ß 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 J. SHI ET AL.
high-quality resources, promote the development of chemical industry, steel,

light industry, and agriculture, it is very important to develop the new coal
chemical industry (Wang, Han, & He, 2009). In recent years, stimulated by
market demand and other factors, the coal chemical industry in the rich coal
areas in western China has shown a trend of rapid growth (Shi, Han, Xu, &
Han, 2018). At the same time, the constraints of water resources carrying
capacity and environmental pollution on the development of coal chemical
industry have become increasingly prominent (Shi et al., 2018). At present,
China’s coal chemical industry is still in the initial stage, and some technolo-
gies and environmental protection technologies are not mature enough,
especially the wastewater treatment has become the bottleneck in the devel-
opment of coal chemical industry.
At present, the water resource demand of China’s four major industries,
including coal mining, coal washing, coal power generation, and coal
chemical industry, exceeds 1.8 1010 m3/year (Gao et al., 2019). The vol-
ume of water resource demand is equal to the drinking water consumed
per year by a city with a population of 13.03 million such as the city of
Shenzhen, China. Among this, coal chemical industry is a high-water con-
sumption industry. Further, for coal chemical projects, the quality and
quantity of gasification wastewater produced by different gasification tech-
nologies are different greatly (Wang et al., 2011). At present, main gasifica-
tion technologies include pressurized gasification of crushed coal, fluidized
bed gasification, coal-water slurry gasification, and powder coal gasification
(Yu, Chen, Feng, & Qian, 2010). Due to the low gasification temperature,
the wastewater produced by pressurized gasification of crushed coal is of
complex composition and has high concentration of pollutant. The COD
concentration is generally 3000-6000 mg/L. Its pollutant composition is
complex, including phenol, polyphenol, NH3-N, organic nitrogen, fatty
acid, and little amount of naphthalene, anthracene, thiophene, pyridine,
and other refractory organic compounds. The BOD/COD (B/C) value is
less than 0.3, thus the biodegradability is poor and the treatment is diffi-
cult. The wastewater produced by fluidized bed gasification process mainly
includes quench water, washing wastewater from washing tower, and fine
slag wastewater from slag pool. Due to the stable gasification and high pres-
sure, the discharged wastewater basically does not contain tar, cyanide, and
other impurities, which can be treated by sedimentation and filtration, and
then recycled, realizing the reuse of water resources. Coal-water slurry gasifi-
cation wastewater mainly comes from chilled wastewater, gas washing waste-
water, and slag wastewater. Due to high gasification temperature, organic
matter concentration is low and COD concentration is approximately
500 mg/L. Most of the pollutants are small molecular organic matter with
good biodegradability and B/C value is greater than 0.5. However, total
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3
dissolved solids (TDS) concentration is high (above 3000 mg/L), especially

Cl- (approximately 500 mg/L). Powdery coal gasification wastewater mainly
comes from gas washing wastewater and quenched slag wastewater, which
belongs to high-temperature gasification wastewater. COD concentration is
similar to the coal-water slurry gasification wastewater, but NH3-N and
cyanide concentration are higher. The concentration of Cl- is higher
(2000–3000 mg/L), and TDS in powdery coal gasification wastewater (above
10000 mg/L) is higher than that of coal-water slurry gasification wastewater.
Coal chemical wastewater contains a large number of toxic and refrac-
tory compounds (Shi, Xu, Han, & Han, 2019a). Due to its complexity, sin-
gle treatment process cannot meet the requirements of wastewater
treatment (Shi, Xu, Han, & Han, 2019b). According to the characteristics
of wastewater quality and process characteristics, a combination of multiple
treatment processes is required. In practical engineering application, the
combination of various technologies is the most effective way to treat the
coal chemical wastewater (Shi et al., 2018). Coal chemical wastewater treat-
ment process mainly includes three parts: physicochemical pretreatment,
microbiological treatment, and advanced treatment (Ji et al., 2016).
Coal chemical wastewater has high concentrations of phenolic substances,
NH3-N, and oil substances (Pan, Liu, Ma, & Li, 2012). If this wastewater
enters the microbiological treatment system directly, the high concentration
of phenolic substances and NH3-N will inhibit the growth of microorgan-
isms, which will lead to the breakdown of the subsequent treatment system
(Zhou et al., 2016). Therefore, the pretreatment is very important. The treat-
ment effect of the pretreatment directly affect the stability of the subsequent
systems and the final treatment effect (El-Naas, Al-Zuhair, & Alhaija, 2010).
The concentration of phenol in coal chemical wastewater before pretreatment
is as high as 4200-7500 mg/L, and extraction-dephenol recovery technology is
usually used to recover crude phenol (Shi, Fang, Zhou, Wang, & Luo, 2011);
The concentration of NH3-N is about 3000-10000 mg/L, and the main
method is strip-steam ammonia to remove free ammonia in wastewater
(Yuan, Sun, & Guo, 2012); Oil pollutants are usually removed by oil trap
and air flotation (Feng, Yu, Chen, & Qian, 2009).
After the physicochemical pretreatment, the concentration of various
pollutants in coal chemical wastewater is still high. COD is about
2000–5000 mg/L, NH3-N is about 50–200 mg/L, phenolic substance content
is 200–1000 mg/L, and B/C value is 0.25–0.30, which indicates that the bio-
degradability of wastewater after pretreatment is still low (Wang, Han,
Yuan, & Li, 2010). Among them, phenolic substances, nitrogen heterocyclic
substances (NHCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), sulfide,
cyanide, and other pollutants that inhibit microbiological treatment
still exist (Ramakrishnan & Gupta, 2006). Microbiological treatment is
4 J. SHI ET AL.
important in the coal chemical wastewater treatment, and most organic

pollutants in the effluent of the pretreatment can be removed in this stage
(Ramakrishnan & Gupta, 2008). The effect of microbiological treatment is
directly related to the operation state and effluent quality of the whole
treatment system, and even determines whether the goal of “zero dis-
charge” can be achieved (Park, Lee, Kim, & Park, 2008). “Zero discharge”
means that the coal chemical industry does not discharge any wastewater
into the environment outside the industry, and all the wastewater generated
in the production process should be recycled after treatment.
Microbiological treatment is widely used because of its low cost, large proc-
essing capacity, and simple operation and management (Fang, Han, Xu,
Zhao, & Zhang, 2014; Wang, Liu, & Dai, 2019). In recent years, a series of
improved and enhanced biological treatment processes and multistage bio-
logical combination processes have been applied to the treatment of coal
chemical wastewater. At present, the processes commonly used in waste-
water treatment of coal chemical industry include anaerobic, anoxic, aer-
obic, and biological enhancement (Zhuang et al., 2015).
After microbiological treatment, the wastewater still contains long-chain
alkane, NHCs, and other refractory organic substances. The effluent quality
indexes such as COD, NH3-N, and color are still difficult to meet the first-
level discharge standards (GB8978-1996, COD 60 mg/L, NH3-N 15 mg/
L, and color 50 mg/L), which usually requires further treatment (Ghatak,
2014). At present, coagulation precipitation, physical adsorption, and
advanced oxidation method are commonly used for advanced treatment of
coal chemical wastewater (Laera et al., 2011).
In the past five years, there were four review papers published about the
treatment of coal chemical wastewater (Shi et al., 2018; Zhu, Han, Xu, Han,
& Ma, 2018; Zhao & Liu, 2016; Ji et al., 2016). Shi et al. (2018) just
described the microbiological treatment methods, without the pretreatment
methods. Zhu et al. (2018), Zhao and Liu (2016), and Ji et al. (2016) div-
ided the treatment processes into aerobic and anaerobic processes. This
study did not distinguish aerobic and anaerobic processes in microbio-
logical treatment processes. Instead, it started from the overall microbio-
logical treatment and based on the core processes, and clarified the current
situation through the comparison of phenomena and results. Furthermore,
none of the four reviews combined with actual projects during the discus-
sion. Through the comprehensive investigation of coal chemical industry
and the collection of the wastewater treatment technology of existing
and planned projects, this research analyzed the source and restrictive fac-
tors of coal chemical wastewater pollutants. This review focused on the
problems encountered in the application of processes on actual projects.
Thus, this review can provide better technical support and environmental
management ideas for energy conservation, emission reduction, and sus-

tainable development in the field of coal chemical industry, and provide
better references for solving the problems of water environment restriction
in the long-term development of coal chemical industry.
Starting from the prominent wastewater environment problems existing in
the development of China’s coal chemical industry, this research carried out an
all-round investigation on the coal chemical industry. Data of wastewater treat-
ment technology were collected and sorted out from the existing and planned
projects. Analysis were conducted mainly from the aspects of coal-to-gas pro-
ject, coal-to-oil project, and coal-to-olefin project. By the analysis of techno-
logical process, operation condition, existing problems, and solutions of each
project, this research can provide some technical support and environmental
management ideas for sustainable development of coal chemical industry.
2. Status of wastewater treatment in coal-to-gas projects

Table 1 shows the comprehensive statistics of wastewater treatment oper-
ational status of coal chemical projects. Table 2 shows the comparison of
wastewater treatment technologies of typical coal chemical projects. The
following analysis is carried out one by one according to specific projects.
2.1. Datang keqi coal-to-gas project

2.1.1. Project profile
Crushed coal pressurized gasification technology is adopted in Datang keqi
coal-to-gas project, and the raw coal is lignite. The total investment of the
project is 25.7 billion yuan (RMB), and the construction scale is 4 billion
m3 of natural gas per year. The project is divided into three series of con-
tinuous construction, each series of 1.33 billion m3. A series of devices
were put into operation successfully on December 18, 2013.
2.1.2. Technological process

The organic wastewater in the plant includes domestic and laboratory
wastewater, coal gasification wastewater, methanol wastewater, intermittent
floor flushing wastewater, and initial rainwater. Conventional anoxic/oxic
(A/O) process was adopted in the main biochemistry system, and active
coke adsorption process was adopted in the advanced treatment. An et al.
(2016) introduced a novel adsorbent active coke, which is suitable for
macromolecular contaminant removal. Compared with the activated car-
bon, the active coke has higher decolorization ability and can remove more
refractory compounds (Aivalioti, Pothoulaki, Papoulias, & Gidarakos,
2012). The process flow is as follows:
6
Table 1. Statistics of wastewater treatment operational status of coal chemical projects.

Evaporative
Volumes Coal Product crystallization
Project (t/h) quality Furnace classification Technological process Reuse section technique
2.1 Datang keqi 850 Lignite Crushed coal Natural gas Grille ! Adjusting tank ! Air flotation ! Grease Ultrafiltration þ Triple effect
pressurized trap ! Anaerobic hydrolysis acidification tank reverse osmosis evaporation
gasification ! A/O tank ! Secondary sedimentation tank
J. SHI ET AL.
technology ! Reactive coke adsorption ! Biological

aerated filter (BAF) ! Effluent.
2.2 Xijiang 750 Oil-rich Crushed coal Natural gas Influent ! Oil trap ! Second level air floating Laminated filter þ Lime softening !
qinghua long-flame pressurized tank ! First level anaerobic/anoxic/oxic/ ultrafiltration þ multi-media
coal gasification sedimentation (AAOS) microbiological treatment reverse osmosis filtration !
technology tank ! Second level anoxic/oxic/sedimentation reverse osmosis !
(AOS) microbiological treatment tank ! evaporation
Coagulation sedimentation tank ! Ozone crystallization
oxidation tank ! BAF ! Ultrafiltration
! Effluent.
2.3 Henan yima 125 Long flame Luqi furnac Natural gas Gasification wastewater ! Air floating ! －－
coal Hydrolyzed acidification tank ! Sequencing
batch reactor (SBR) ! Aerobic tank !
Secondary sedimentation tank ! Air floating
tank ! Oxidation tank ! Fiber ball filter !
Activated carbon ! Effluent.
2.4 China coal 360 Long flame Luqi furnac Natural gas EC anaerobic tower ! Pre-hydrolysis acidification －－
longhua coal tank ! Rolling contact oxidation process !
Harbin Multi-stage A/O process ! Biological
deammonia process ! Coagulation
precipitation process ! Biological aerated filter.
3.1 Shenhua 743 Shangwan Liquefied Oil High concentration organic wastewater: Oil Ozone oxidation ! Microfiltration þ
ordos no. 3 coal furnace separation tank ! Air flotation ! A/O ! MBR process ! reverse osmosis !
Homogenizer tank ! 3T fixed biological desalination and reuse evaporation
inclusion tank ! BAF ! Fenton process ! crystallization
Ozone oxidation ! A/O tank ! MBR tank !
Effluent
Low concentration oily wastewater: Suction
pool ! Oil trap ! Regulating tank !
Cavitation air floating tank ! A/O tank !
MBR tank
3.2 Lu’an shanxi 250 Meager Luqi pressurized Oil Integrated inlet ! regulating tank ! hydrolysis －－
changzhi lean coal pulverized tank ! HCF tank ! A/O tank ! secondary
coal gasification hydrolysis ! primary microelectrolysis ! VTBR
technology tank ! flocculation sedimentation tank !
secondary microelectrolysis ! multi-medium
filter ! effluent
3.3 Yitai 100 Bituminous Pulverized coal Oil Oil trap ! air flotation ! regulating tank ! SDN PAC tank ! reuse tank －
coal gasification tank ! secondary sedimentation tank
technology
4.1 Shenhua 540 Long flame Siemens gas schwarze Olefin Wastewater ! Neutralization tank ! Regulation Raw water treatment system: ultrafiltration －
ningmei coal pumpe (GSP) tank ! CAST ! Effluent monitoring tank ! ! reverse osmosis ! cation exchange
pulverized coal Standard discharge ! anion exchange ! mixed ion
pressurized exchange Recovery condensate: AC
gasification filter ! iron removal filter ! mixed
technology bed ion exchange
4.2 Shenhua 700 Anthracite GE coal water slurry Olefin Adjustment tank ! primary sedimentation tank ! Recovery tank ! high-density flocculation －
baotou technology A/O tank ! secondary sedimentation tank ! high-density precipitation !
! reuse neutralization tank ! V-type filter !
ultrafiltration ! reverse osmosis
4.3 China － Anthracite GE coal water Olefin Regulation tank ! SBR tank ! BAF ! Coagulation reaction tank ! high －
coal yulin slurry Coagulation sedimentation þ neutralization tank efficiency clarification tank ! v-type
technology filter tank
5.1 China 360 Long flame BGLfurnace Chemical EC anaerobic process ! Biological enhanced Homogenization tank ! clarification tank －
coal tuke coal fertilizer process ! Multi-stage A/O process ! ! multi-media filtration ! hardness
High density sedimentation tank ! Ozone removal unit ! degassing tower !
contact oxidation tank ! BAF ! V-type filter primary RO ! secondary RO !
! Clean water tank. evaporative crystallization
5.2 Xinjiang － High oil Pulverized coal Methanol; Regulation tank ! air floating tank ! MIC Carbon filter ! ultrafiltration ! primary －
guanghui coal pressurized dimethyl reaction tank ! hydrolysis tank ! contact RO ! secondary RO !
gasification ether; LNG oxidation tank ! CASS tank ! biological filter desalination pond
technology ! ozone tank ! sand filter
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
7
8
Table 2. Comparison of wastewater treatment technologies of typical coal chemical projects.

Core technology Applied project Advantage Disadvantage Influent Effluent Running condition
Anaerobic Henan yima Simple process, low investment; Anaerobic system cannot reach the COD 5000 mg/L BOD COD100-150 mg/L The operation is
hydrolysis þ SBR Small floor area; High efficiency designed treatment effect; Foam in 2000 mg/L Total phenol Color 200 mg/L unstable and the
of nitrogen and organic removal; microbiological treatment system 1500 mg/L Oil 200 mg/L added salt is more.
Strong impact load resistance. is serious. NH3-N 400 mg/L
J. SHI ET AL.
EC anaerobic tower þ China coal longhua Relevant demonstration projects Patent technology is much, need COD 3000-4000 mg/L BOD All treated effluent The operation
BE biological Harbin; China in China can be referred. patent fee. 1500-2500 mg/L TN can be reused is stable.
enhanced process þ coal tuke; 200 mg/L Total phenol without outflow.
multi-stage A/O Datang fuxin. 500 mg/L Oil 150 mg/L COD 60 mg/L
NH3-N 15 mg/L
Activated coke Datang keqi Activated coke is self-sufficient Activation of activated coke is difficult; COD 4380 mg/L BOD After 2 years of Cannot meet the
adsorption þ and cheap; Activated coke The removal effect on inorganic 1400 mg/L NH3-N commissioning, the design requirements
microbiological can reduce the pollution of UF ions is poor; After the completion 200-250 mg/L Total effluent cannot reach of stable operation.
treatment film pollution and has the of the project, it has been in the phenol 920 mg/L Volatile phenol the standard and is
function of decolorizing debugging stage. Some problems 400 mg/L discharged into the
and deodoring. have been found in the evaporation pond.
debugging, and the design
requirements cannot be achieved.
Anaerobic Xinjiang qinghua Strong impact resistance; Large power consumption; Poor COD 4800 mg/L BOD The effluent cannot The effluent cannot
hydrolysis þ A/O Mature technology, easy microbiological treatment effect; 1400 mg/L NH3-N reach the design reach “zero
to operate. Large reaction tank volume; 310 mg/L requirement stably. discharge”.
Adsorbents have high investment
and consumption.
Anaerobic Inner Mongolia Effectively remove high ammonia Large floor area; Strong odor in － The effluent cannot There are some
hydrolysis þ SBR huineng; Shaanxi nitrogen; Simple device, low aerobic tank; Adsorbents have high reach the design problems in
jingbian. operating cost. investment and consumption. requirement stably. the design.
Anoxic-aerobic Shanxi linfen Simple process flow, strong Large power consumption; Packing COD 3000 mg/L NH3-N COD 140 mg/L Cannot meet the
process impact resistance; Low easy plugging; Poor effect on coal 650 mg/L Total NH3-N 230 mg/L design requirements
sludge yield. gasification wastewater treatment. phenol 250 mg/L Total phenol of stable operation.
0.9 mg/L
3T-BAF Shenhua ordos Strong impact resistance; Treatment of high concentration COD 5000 mg/L NH3-N Effluent is unstable. High concentration
Mature technology, wastewater adopts fenton and 300-500 mg/L Total of pollutants,
relatively easy to operate. ozone oxidation technology, which phenol 300-400 mg/L single nutrients,
has high treatment cost; 3T-BAF the lack of nitrogen
produce a large amount of H2S; and phosphorus;
High concentration of pollutants, Wastewater contains
single nutrients, and lack of a large number of oils,
necessary nitrogen and phosphorus phenol, long chain
nutrients in high concentration alkane substances,
organic wastewater are not resulting in poor
conducive to treatment effect and
microbiological treatment. unstable operation.
Grille ! Adjusting tank ! Air flotation ! Grease trap ! Anaerobic

hydrolysis acidification tank ! A/O tank ! Secondary sedimentation tank !
Reactive coke adsorption ! Biological aerated filter (BAF) ! Effluent.
The reuse section adopts the treatment process of “ultrafiltration þ
reverse osmosis”. The effluent from the ultrafiltration unit is divided into
two parts, one of which is used to replenish the circulating water (turbid
circulating water) of the chemical system, and the other part is desalinated
in the reverse osmosis system. After desalination, fresh water is used as
supplement water, and concentrated brine is sent into the high concen-
trated brine treatment system of the whole plant.
2.1.3. Running condition

In A/O process, COD is removed from 3500 mg/L to 350 mg/L. After the
advanced treatment of active coke adsorption process and two-stage BAF,
COD is less than 50 mg/L in the effluent.
Sludge cultivation and domestication were started In June 2012. The
designed treatment scale was 850 m3/h. Due to the low load of main pro-
cess, the maximum operating load of the sewage treatment system was
710 m3/h. At present, the influent of the system is about 500 m3/h, among
which the phenol-ammonia recycling inflow series is about 320 m3/h, COD
is about 4000 mg/L (design value is less than 3500 mg/L), NH3-N is about
150 mg/L (design value is less than 150 mg/L), oil content is about 65 mg/L
(design value is less than 50 mg/L), and total phenol is about 700 mg/L.
The inflow of methanol wastewater is about 18 m3/h, and the inflow of
domestic wastewater is about 100 m3/h. The COD of effluent in the unit is
about 130 mg/L, and NH3-N is about 30 mg/L.
2.1.4. Existing problems and suggestions

1. The quality of phenol-ammonia recycling wastewater is bad.
The design indexes of influent are COD: 3500 mg/L, NH3-N: 150 mg/L.
The actual operation wastewater quality: COD: 4000–5000 mg/L, NH3-N:
150–200 mg/L. The actual influent exceeds the design value of the organic
wastewater treatment system, which affects the subsequent treatment units.
2. COD is high in the effluent.
The fluctuation of influent quality leads to high COD in the effluent
(about 130 mg/L). The coke powder in the advanced treatment unit has
poor sedimentation, so there will be coke powder in the effluent, which will
eventually lead to high turbidity, thus affecting the normal operation of the
ultrafiltration device. The low treatment load of the sedimentation tank has
become the bottleneck restricting the organic wastewater treatment.
10 J. SHI ET AL.
3. The dehydrated active coke powder in the advanced treatment section

has high water content and small capacity.
The decoke capacity of each vacuum dehydrator was designed to be 2 t/
h, while the decoke capacity in actual operation was 0.5 t/h. After that, a
centrifugal dehydrator was added, and the decoke capacity was 1 t/h.
However, the moisture content of coke powder was still higher after dewa-
tering by vacuum dehydrator and centrifugal dehydrator, and the dehy-
drated coke still cannot be mixed with thermal coal for combustion.
4. Foam problem in the microbiological treatment system.

The foam problem occurred in many projects; thus, a unified discussion
is conducted in 6.3 Common issues.
5. The floating problem of active coke in sedimentation tank.
The particles are small enough to cause coke to rise and subsequent film
blockage. By controlling the particle size of active coke and adding a stage
of preprecipitation at the front of the sedimentation tank, the problem of
active coke floating can be solved (Zheng et al., 2019).
6. Unstable operation index of wastewater treatment plant.
The quality characteristics of gasification wastewater are changed due to
the change of coal type in gasifier, which directly leads to the high NH3-N
in the effluent of secondary sedimentation tank. Optimization and adjust-
ment are underway.
7. Evaporation pond problem (the unified discussion is in 6.3
Common issues).
2.2. Xijiang qinghua coal-to-gas project

Xinjiang qinghua adopts the pulverized coal pressurized gasification tech-
nology. The raw coal is oil-rich long-flame coal, which is the youngest bitu-
minous coal with the lowest degree of mineralization and only higher than
lignite. Its volatile content exceeds 42%. This gasification process waste-
water is a typical toxic organic industrial wastewater with high phenolic
substances and NH3-N. The project is located in Yining county, Yili prefec-
ture, in the central region of Yili river valley, Xinjiang. The total investment
of the project is 26.4 billion yuan, and the construction scale is 5.5 billion
m3 of natural gas per year. In November 2013, the first phase of the project
was completed and put into production.

Influent ! Oil trap ! Second level air floating tank ! First level
anaerobic/anoxic/oxic/sedimentation (AAOS) microbiological treatment
tank ! Second level anoxic/oxic/sedimentation (AOS) microbiological
treatment tank ! Coagulation sedimentation tank ! Ozone oxidation
tank ! BAF ! Ultrafiltration ! Effluent.

The influent quality is inconsistent with the designed wastewater quality due
to the coal quality. And the deammonia tray will be blocked after long-term
operation. The recycled effluent of phenol ammonia recovery exceeds the
design load of microbiological treatment system, leading to a significant
increase in the concentration of organic compounds such as phenolics and
aromatic hydrocarbons in the effluent of pretreatment, which aggravates the
burden of the main microbiological treatment section and makes the effluent
substandard (First-level discharge standards, GB8978-1996).

1. The operation of plant is characterized by strong odor (the unified dis-
cussion is in 6.3 Common issues) and poor operating environment.
2. The wastewater treatment is not stable in the early stage, and the
unqualified wastewater is discharged to the evaporation pond, and the
wastewater level of the evaporation pond is high at present.
3. Evaporation pond problem (the unified discussion is in 6.3 Common issues).
Without an evaporative crystallization device, the high salt wastewater is dis-
charged to the evaporation pond, and the salt is continuously concentrated,
which has environmental risks (Ruskowitz, Suarez, Tyler, & Childress, 2014).
2.3. Henan Yima coal-to-gas project

The project uses Luqi furnace, and the raw coal is long flame coal. The pro-
ject is located in Yima city, Henan province, with a total investment of 2.5
billion yuan. The designed production scale is 2.64 million m3 of gas per day,
1.8 million standard m3 of natural gas per day, 240,000 t of methanol per
year, and 200,000 t of dimethyl ether per year. Meanwhile, the by-product
coal tar, crude phenol, coal oil, and liquid oxygen can reach 80,000 t/year.

Gasification wastewater ! Air floating ! Hydrolyzed acidification tank !
Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) ! Aerobic tank ! Secondary
12 J. SHI ET AL.
sedimentation tank ! Air floating tank ! Oxidation tank ! Fiber ball

filter ! Activated carbon ! Effluent.

The phenol ammonia recovery adopts the technology of “double tow-
er þ ether extraction”. After treatment, COD is 3500–5000 mg/L, total phe-
nol is 600–1300 mg/L, total ammonia is 200–400 mg/L, and total oil is
120–150 mg/L. After several treatment processes, including COD adsorption
at the initial stage, microbial metabolism at the later stage, formation of
flocs and flocculation, and precipitation performance, COD in the effluent
of SBR is about 100–150 mg/L.
2.3.4. Technical evaluation and field problem analysis

This project adopts “regulating tank þ air floating tank” as the pretreatment
process. The regulating tank is mainly used to regulate the quality and
quantity of gasification wastewater and stabilize the inlet water quality of
microbiological treatment system. The main function of air floating tank is
to release supersaturated air through decompression. The generated tiny
bubbles of air will contact with impurities in the wastewater, thus sus-
pended substances, disperse oil, and emulsified oil in the wastewater can be
removed (Tansel & Pascual, 2011).
The wastewater treatment project adopts “hydrolytic acidification
tank þ SBR þ aerobic tank”. Under the action of a large number of hydro-
lyzed bacteria and acidifying bacteria in hydrolytic acidification tank
(Figure 1a), macromolecular materials which are difficult to biodegrade are
converted into small molecular materials, so as to improve the biodegrad-
€ ud€
ability of wastewater (Ulg€ ur, Erg€uder, Uludag-Demirer, & Demirer,
2019). After hydrolysis and acidification treatment, the wastewater enters
the SBR tank. SBR can degrade organic matter and denitrification at the
same time (Choi, Cho, & Jung, 2019). However, due to the high concentra-
tion of toxic organic pollutants, the microbial activity and biomass in trad-
itional SBR process can hardly meet the requirements of process operation.
A large amount of spongy foam can be seen in the SBR tank on site, and a
large amount of sludge is attached to the surface of the foam (Figure 1b),
which is one of the main reasons for the reduction of activated sludge in
the system. The effluent from SBR tank enters the aerobic tank. The main
function of the aerobic tank is to decompose organic matter into inorganic
matter under aerobic respiration (Kuşçu & Sponza, 2011).
The advanced treatment process of this project is “air flotation tank þ fil-
tration þ chemical oxidation”. Suspended matter and some organic matter
can be removed by adding coagulant and flocculant in the air flotation
Figure 1. Henan yima coal-to-gas project: (a) Hydrolysis acidification tank; (b) SBR; (c)
Floatation tank; (d) Advanced treatment.
tank (Figure 1c). The effluent of the air floating tank enters the filter,
whose main function is to intercept suspended substances (Tian, Ou, Liu,
Liang, & Pui, 2019). The effluent from the filter enters the chemical oxida-
tion process, which further reduces the concentration of refractory organic
matter in the wastewater (Figure 1d).
At present, the wastewater treatment plant operation has the issues of
serious foam problems, chemical dosage, and labor intensity. The TDS
of wastewater increases obviously due to the addition of a large number of
chemical agents. At the same time, air flotation pretreatment, SBR tank,
and other units in the operation of the wastewater treatment plant are not
covered for centralized treatment of odor.
2.4. China coal longhua Harbin coal chemical project

China coal longhua Harbin coal chemical project uses Luqi furnace, and
the raw coal is long flame coal. The project covers an area of 100 hectares.
The company uses coal pressurized gasification technology to produce coal
gas, simultaneously produce 140,000 t of methanol and by-products such as
coal-made oil, crude phenol, and liquid ammonia. Later, China coal group
14 J. SHI ET AL.
invested 1.08 billion yuan to expand the project (250,000 t of methanol per
year), which was completed and put into production on December 30,
2008. The product quality reached the international AAA standard, and the
annual production capacity was 480,000 t of methanol.

The wastewater is mainly composed of gasification wastewater and metha-
nol production wastewater, among which the gasification wastewater is
210 m3/h, methanol production wastewater is 20 m3/h, and domestic waste-
water is 130 m3/h.
The newly built wastewater treatment process of this project adopts EBA
(external circulation anaerobic process-biological enrichment process-anoxic/
oxic process, EC-BE-A/O) multistage microbiological combination process of
Harbin Institute of Technology. The project has passed the acceptance of
Heilongjiang provincial environmental protection department on May 22,
2009. The wastewater treatment process is as follows:
EC anaerobic tower ! Pre-hydrolysis acidification tank ! Rolling con-
tact oxidation process ! Multi-stage A/O process ! Biological deammonia
process ! Coagulation precipitation process ! Biological aerated filter.
The EC anaerobic process is mainly composed of hydrolytic acidification
tank and EC anaerobic tower (Figure 2a). In the hydrolytic acidification tank,
the complex organic matter will be decomposed into short chain and small
molecular organic matter, so as to improve the biodegradability of wastewater
(Shi, Xu, Han, & Han, 2019c). In fact, strong evidence showed that the oper-
ation eventually failed if anaerobic unit was not present or malfunctioned
(Kuschk et al., 2010). In the EC anaerobic tower, organic matter will be car-
boxylated, and some pollutants will be converted to methane by anaerobic
bacteria (Shi, Xu, Han, & Han, 2019d; Shi, Xu, Han, & Han, 2019e).
The rolling contact oxidation process (Figure 2b) adopts the biological
enhanced contact process. This process has the dual advantages of biofilm
and activated sludge process, which has high biomass and biological activ-
ity, and can effectively degrade organic pollutants (Li, Shi, Xu, Han, &
Han, 2019a). A hybrid fixed-film bioreactor to treat coal gasification waste-
water was utilized by Rava and Chirwa (2016) to remove the COD, phe-
nols, and NH3-N. The operation of hybrid fixed-film was stable during
fluctuating loading conditions and fixed micro-organisms were more resist-
ant to changes in pH, nutrients, and toxic substances. The bioreactor
improved the quality of the coal gasification wastewater by removing 49%
and 78% of the COD and phenols, respectively.
In A/O tank, NH3-N in wastewater was removed by nitrifying bacteria
and denitrifying bacteria, and COD was simultaneously removed in the
alternating environment of anoxic and oxic (Zhang et al., 2019).
Figure 2. China coal longhua Harbin coal chemical project: (a) EC anaerobic tower; (b) Rolling
contact oxidation process; (c) Coagulation precipitation process; (d) Biological aerated filter.
Biofilms are formed on fluidized biological fillers in the biological deam-

monia process and nitrification of NH3-N is the main reaction. In the
coagulation sedimentation tank (Figure 2c), the coagulant is mixed with
the wastewater, and some COD can be removed by floc adsorption and
precipitation. In the biological aerated filter (Figure 2d), the ceramsite filler
has a huge specific surface area, on which abundant bacteria are fixed to
form a highly active biofilm, which has an excellent function of oxidation
degradation and adsorption of pollutants in wastewater (Cheng, Fan, &
Guo, 2014).

In the wastewater of this project, the concentrations of volatile phenol, total
phenol, and NH3-N are high. COD concentration is 3000-4000 mg/L, total
phenol is 600-800 mg/L, and NH3-N is 100-200 mg/L. After treatment, the
wastewater of this project reaches the standard (First-level discharge
16 J. SHI ET AL.
standards, GB8978-1996). COD removal ratio is more than 98%, and the
operation effect is stable for three years.
1. During operation, the equipment was corroded seriously. There were

many foams in the aeration tank, and a large number of microorgan-
isms adhered to the foams to dehydrate and die.
2. The operation of wastewater treatment plant is characterized by strong
odor and poor operating environment.
3. The effluent is discharged without advanced treatment and reuse of the
intermediate water, which is a waste of resources.
3. Status of wastewater treatment in coal-to-oil projects

3.1. Shenhua ordos coal-to-oil project
Shenhua ordos coal-to-oil project adopts direct coal-to-oil technology.
Main installations of the project include (1) 2 million t/year coal. (2)
328,800 t/year catalyst preparation. (3) 1.08 million t/year coal liquefaction.
(4) 3.68 million t/year hydrogenation stability. (5) 1.0258 million t/year
hydrogenation modification. (6) 362,000 t/year light hydrocarbon recovery.
(7) 600,000 t/year oil residue forming. (8) Two sets of 200,000 t/year
hydrogen production from coal. (9) 1.064 million t/year gas desulfurization.
(10) Two sets of 50,000 m3/h air separation. (11) 35,840 m3/h of gas-to-
hydrogen. (12) 100,000 t/year of catalytic reforming. (13) 180,000 t/year
indirect liquefaction of coal. (14) 100,000 t/year carbon dioxide capture and
storage demonstration unit.

In order to save water and protect environment, the measures of single
treatment and comprehensive treatment are adopted for wastewater with
different quality.
The treatment process of high concentration organic wastewater is as
follows: Oil separation tank ! Air flotation ! Homogenizer tank ! 3 T
fixed biological inclusion tank ! BAF ! Fenton process ! Ozone oxi-
dation ! A/O tank ! MBR tank ! Effluent, wastewater volume is
80 m3/h.
The treatment process of low concentration oily wastewater is as follows:
Suction pool ! Oil trap ! Regulating tank ! Cavitation air floating tank
! A/O tank ! MBR tank, wastewater volume is 204 m3/h.
The salt-containing wastewater is mainly discharged from the circulating

water plant, with the actual built capacity of 286 m3/h. “Reverse osmosis
system þ evaporator treatment from GE USA” is adopted.
The catalyst wastewater treatment process is as follows: Influent !
Shallow air flotation ! Pretreatment ! Evaporator ! Air lift device !
Advanced treatment or Crystallization device.

In the influent, COD concentration is 4500–6000 mg/L, NH3-N is
100–200 mg/L, total phenol is 300–400 mg/L, volatile phenol is 40–100 mg/
L, and sulfide is 20–110 mg/L. After the advanced treatment, the wastewater
quality was COD < 50 mg/L and NH3-N < 5 mg/L. There are three evapor-
ation ponds, two of which have been built (500,000 m3 and 300,000 m3),
one of which is under construction (100,000 m3). The depth is 7 m and the
total capacity is 900,000 m3.

1. The wastewater treatment processes of this project are carried out
according to different wastewater quality. Low concentration oily waste-
water treatment can easily meet the design standards (First-level dis-
charge standards, GB8978-1996); Due to the high concentration of
pollutants, single nutrients, lack of nitrogen and phosphorus, and the
large amount of oil, phenol, and long-chain alkane substances, the treat-
ment effect of high concentration organic wastewater is not stable.
2. Fenton oxidative process has proven to be effective in treatment of var-
ied refractory-containing organic wastewaters (Oller, Malato, &
Sanchez-Perez, 2011; Boczkaj & Fernandes, 2017). However, as a pre-
treatment process, fenton oxidation is not selective in oxidizing organic
compounds by hydroxyl radicals, so the dosage of agents is large and
the operating cost is high. Fenton tower is adjusted by sulfuric acid, and
a large amount of sulfuric acid is released into the wastewater. Since the
subsequent 3T microbiological treatment is currently operated in the
form of contact oxidation, the toxic odor of H2S will be generated in
the biodegradation process. Advanced oxidation processes based on
cavitation and combined with cavitation phenomenon are suitable for
wastewater treatment (Ga˛gol, Przyjazny, & Boczkaj, 2018a; Ga˛gol,
Przyjazny, & Boczkaj, 2018b; Boczkaj, Ga˛gol, Klein, & Przyjazny, 2018),
which may be promising solutions in treatment of varied refractory-
containing organic wastewaters. Furthermore, many researches show
that advanced oxidation processes based on persulfates have a potential
in the wastewater treatment (Yuan et al., 2019; Fernandes, Makos, &
18 J. SHI ET AL.
Boczkaj, 2018a; Fernandes, Makos, Khan, & Boczkaj, 2018b; Shah

et al., 2018).
3. Due to the high salt content in the catalyst wastewater (> 50,000 mg/L),
the discharge of concentrated salt solution reaches about 20 m3/h,
which exceeds the design treatment load of the current crystallization
device (10 m3/h). The crystallization unit cannot handle the concen-
trated salt liquid completely, so it needs to be expanded.
3.2. Lu’an Shanxi Changzhi indirect coal-to-oil project

The gasifier of this project adopts Luqi pressurized pulverized coal gasifica-
tion technology. The raw coal is meager lean coal. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
technology is used in this project (Wang, Han, Han, Li, & Zhu, 2017). The
products include diesel oil, naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), advanced
paraffin, and fine chemicals. The project was approved to start construction
in April 2007 and completed and put into production in July 2009.

The influent includes three parts: coal gasification wastewater: 192.6 t/h;
synthetic oil wastewater: 24.2 t/h; domestic wastewater: 8.8 t/h. The
designed wastewater size is 250 t/h. The wastewater treatment reaches the
recycling standards of circulating water (GB50335-2002, COD < 20 mg/L,
NH3-N < 2 mg/L, and turbidity < 3 NTU) and is directly replenished into
the circulation system. The process flow is as follows: Comprehensive influ-
ent ! Adjustment tank ! Hydrolysis tank ! A/O tank ! First micro
electrolysis ! Vertical tubulant biological reactor (VTBR) ! Second
micro electrolysis ! Flocculation sedimentation pool ! Multi-medium
filter ! Effluent.

In the influent of the pretreatment device, COD is about 4000 mg/L and
NH3-N is about 150 mg/L. After the microbiological treatment, the effluent
meets the discharge standards (First-level discharge standards, GB8978-
1996). In the reuse water after the treatment, COD is about 149.9 mg/L,
NH3-N is about 8.687 mg/L, residual chlorine is about 0.0838 mg/L, turbid-
ity is about 11.495 mg/L, and conductivity is about 1069 ls/cm.
3.2.4. Existing problem

1. In the operation, the equipment is corroded seriously and there are
many foams in the aeration tank.
2. The main microbiological treatment tank is not covered, so the odor is

large and the operating environment is bad.
3. The pollution diversion is poor and the total oil content is high.
4. The modification effect of micro-electrolysis is poor, and do not reach
the expected effect.
3.3. Yitai 160,000 t indirect coal-to-oil project

The project was started in May 2006 and successfully produced the first
qualified oil product of China’s indirect liquefaction industrialization on
March 27, 2009. Its production equipments mainly include coal gasifica-
tion, synthetic gas purification, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, oil processing,
and other processes. The project is equipped with a wastewater treatment
system with a design capacity of 100 m3/h, a 300 m3/h recycling station,
chemical water station, circulating water system, etc. Among them, 300 m3/
h recycling station was completed in October 2014 and put into operation
in November 2014.
3.3.2. Technical evaluation and field problem analysis

The wastewater treatment process is mainly composed of pretreatment sec-
tion, biological treatment section, advanced treatment section, sludge treat-
ment section, and reuse advanced treatment section. The main process of
wastewater treatment adopts strengthening denitrification/nitrification
(SDN) process. The SDN process consists of two parts: anoxic tank and
two-stage oxic tank. In the SDN process, organic matter in wastewater is
used as carbon source and energy source for denitrification (Su et al.,
2019a). Some organics in wastewater are removed by denitrification, which
reduced the load of subsequent aerobic stage. The alkalinity produced by
denitrification can partially meet the requirement of alkalinity in the pro-
cess of nitrification, thus reducing the consumption of chemical agents (Su
et al., 2019b; Su et al., 2019c).
Technological process of wastewater treatment is shown in Figure 3.
Domestic sewage, backwashing wastewater from the activated carbon filter
adsorption tank, and sewage from the drainage network flow into the
regulating tank after being lifted; Oil-free wastewater flows directly into
the regulating tank. Oil-containing production wastewater flows into the
regulating tank after the removal of oil and suspended matter in the oil-
separating sedimentation tank and the air-floating unit; In the case of acci-
dent or equipment overhaul, each production wastewater shall enter the
accident pool. The wastewater quality and quantity of each unit are
adjusted in the regulating tank. Then the wastewater is pumped into the
20 J. SHI ET AL.
Figure 3. Technological process of wastewater treatment.
SDN tank. In the SDN tank, under the action of microbial metabolism,
most pollutants, such as COD, BOD, and NH3-N, are removed (Wang
et al., 2015). After the treatment by SDN, the sludge and wastewater are
separated in the secondary sedimentation tank, and the activated sludge
returns to the anoxic tank. The supernatant flows successively into the mix-
ing reaction tank and coagulation sedimentation tank. The supernatant of
coagulation sedimentation tank flows into the discharge tank for temporary
storage. At this time, the wastewater reaches the second-level discharge
standards (GB8978-1996, COD 120 mg/L, NH3-N 25 mg/L, and color
80 mg/L). The qualified wastewater will be lifted into the activated car-
bon filter adsorption tank to remove suspended substances and refractory
organic compounds. Then the wastewater from the activated carbon tank
will be temporarily stored in the collecting tank, and the water will be sent
to the production area for reuse by the recycling pump.
The sludge generated by the whole wastewater treatment system mainly
comes from the secondary sedimentation tank and the coagulation
sedimentation tank. After concentration, the sludge is sent to the belt press
through the screw pump for dewatering treatment, and the generated cake
is transported abroad for disposal.

According to the operational records from March to December 2012, in
the influent, COD is 600-700 mg/L and NH3-N is 150-170 mg/L. In the
effluent, COD is 20-38 mg/L and NH3-N is 1 mg/L; According to the
operation records from January to March 2015, in the influent, COD is
800-1000 mg/L and NH3-N is 290-310 mg/L. In the effluent, COD is
15 mg/L and NH3-N is 2-6 mg/L.
3.3.4. Problems and suggestions

Yitai coal-to-oil co., LTD. made great efforts to explore wastewater recy-
cling technology and opened up a second water source. On the one hand,
the company has assumed its environmental responsibility and set up a
good corporate image. On the other hand, it has greatly reduced the water
consumption of the company and produced gratifying environmental and
economic benefits. But there are still some problems:
1. More concentrated brine was discharged from the system.
After the purification and reuse project, the external discharge concen-
trated brine meets the standards of “Comprehensive discharge standard
of wastewater” GB8978-1996, which can be discharged into the evapor-
ation pond in the industrial park. The evaporation pond is affected by
the local evaporation volume, and there are many interfering factors
such as air temperature, wind power, salt water concentration, and
organic matter in the wastewater (Bechet, Sialve, Steyer, Shilton, &
Guieysse, 2018). In the case of continuous rain and snow, the evapor-
ation effect decreases, and the wastewater is basically full. In Inner
Mongolia and Ningxia, the water surface is frozen for about 5 months
per year; Furthermore, it is difficult to prevent the leakage of wastewater
in the evaporation pond. Generally, the service life of evaporation pond
is 30 years, and after 30 years, evaporation pond is likely to form a high
concentration of great Salt Lake. More concentrated brine is discharged
into the evaporation pond produced by the system, which is not a good
solution to the problem. The process of membrane separa-
tion þ evaporation þ crystallization is recognized as a reliable treatment
technology for coal chemical industry brine, which can improve the util-
ization of water resources and recycle the salt.
22 J. SHI ET AL.
2. Waste problem
During the operation of each production unit of the project, a large
amount of solid waste and sludge will be generated, which are all hazard-
ous wastes (Di Fraia, Macaluso, Massarotti, & Vanoli, 2019). According to
the calculation, the amount of sludge from the wastewater is the largest,
accounting for more than 85% of the company’s total hazardous waste (Xu
et al., 2019). The existing process of sludge transportation and disposal
after dehydration has two disadvantages: the cost is high and the capacity
of local hazardous waste treatment centers is limited (Zeng et al., 2019). It
is suggested to adopt the process with long sludge age to reduce the
amount of residual sludge; Increase the return of residual sludge to the
anaerobic section; The residual sludge is put into the fluidized bed boiler
system and mixed into the coal burning system (accounting for 1% of the
coal) for high-temperature combustion.
4. Status of wastewater treatment in coal-to-olefin projects

4.1. Shenhua Ningmei coal-to-olefin project
The project adopts Siemens gas schwarze pumpe (GSP) pulverized coal
pressurized gasification technology. The project covers an area of 192 hec-
tares, with an annual output of 500,000 t of polypropylene, 184,800 t of
mixed aromatics, 41,200 t of liquid fuel, and 13,800 t of sulfur. The total
investment is about 16.9 billion yuan. The project started construction in
May 2007 and produced the terminal qualified polypropylene product on
April 28, 2011.

The project wastewater mainly includes gasification wastewater, conversion
and methanol washing wastewater, methanol synthesis rectification waste-
water, methanol to propylene (MTP) wastewater, etc. The wastewater gen-
erated has low concentrations of COD and NH3-N. The wastewater
contains some alcohols and hydrocarbons and is acidic.
In this project, the neutralization tank and the regulating tank are used
for the pretreatment of wastewater. The neutralization tank is used for
the water quality neutralization, and the regulating tank is used for the
quality and quantity (Yilmaz et al., 2019). The pretreatment system can
ensure the tolerable range of microorganisms in the subsequent cyclic
activated sludge technology (CAST) process system and maintain the sta-
ble operation of the microbial system (Li, Wachemo, Yuan, Zuo, & Li,
2019b). After the pretreatment system, the wastewater is fed into the
main microbiological treatment system. The main microbiological
treatment facilities adopt CAST process. The designed COD and NH3-N
values in the influent are 600-800 mg/L and 60-70 mg/L, respectively. The
actual COD and NH3-N values in the influent are 400-500 mg/L and 50-
60 mg/L, and B/C value is 0.5, which indicates that the wastewater has
good biodegradability.
The CAST microbiological treatment tank is operated by “influent-
aeration”, “influent-precipitation”, “influent-decanting”, and “influent-idle”
for 8 h and 3 cycles per day. The dissolved oxygen (DO) in the prereaction
area is controlled at 0.5 mg/L, the DO in the main reaction area is controlled
at 2-3 mg/L, and the reflux ratio in the main reaction area is 20%. The efflu-
ent from the CAST microbiological treatment tank is discharged from the
wastewater quality monitoring tank.
The wastewater treatment process is Wastewater ! Neutralization
tank ! Regulation tank ! CAST ! Effluent monitoring tank ! Standard
discharge. The CAST system is the main microbiological treatment process.
The treatment process of reclaimed water is as follows: Inlet !
Homogenizing tank ! Settling tank ! Non-valve filter ! Raw water
tank ! Self-cleaning filter ! Ultrafiltration device ! Ultrafiltration
tank ! Booster pump ! Filter ! High pressure pump ! Reverse osmo-
sis device ! Water tank ! Lifting pump ! Outlet.
The desalination water station of the project mainly supplies water for
boilers and some process water. The desalination water station is divided
into two sets of devices, namely raw water treatment system and conden-
sate recovery treatment system. The treated water volume of the
raw water treatment system is 1500 m3/h, the processing flow is
“Double membrane method (ultrafiltration þ reverse osmosis) þ Cation
exchange þ Anion exchange þ Mixed ion exchange”, and the total recov-
ery rate is about 65%. The recovered condensate includes turbine con-
densate (500 m3/h) and process condensate (500 m3/h). The process flow
is “Activated carbon filter þ Iron removal filter þ Mixed bed ion exchange
method”.

In the influent of CAST, COD is 400-500 mg/L, NH3-N is 50-60 mg/L, and
B/C value is 0.5. In the effluent, COD is lower than 100 mg/L, NH3-N is
lower than 10 mg/L, part of the effluent enters the reuse water treatment
plant for advanced treatment.
In the influent of the reuse water treatment, COD is lower than 100 mg/
L, NH3-N is lower than 30 mg/L, and suspended solid (SS) is lower than
30 mg/L; In the clean water tank, COD is lower than 30 mg/L, NH3-N is
lower than 5 mg/L, and SS is lower than 0.5 mg/L. Then it is treated by
24 J. SHI ET AL.
double membrane method to reuse. The concentrated water from ultrafil-

tration and reverse osmosis is discharged.
The actual inlet water quality of the reuse water treatment is better than
the design value, and the COD, NH3-N, SS, and oil content in the effluent
are lower than 15 mg/L, 2 mg/L, 1 mg/L, and 0.05 mg/L, respectively.
1. The treatment of MTP wastewater. The source of wastewater in this

project is complex. During the operation, the alkaline wastewater gener-
ated by MTP system enters into the neutralization tank. Although the
production amount of alkaline wastewater is low (1 t/h), the pH is high.
When the wastewater is mixed with other wastewater in the neutraliza-
tion tank, the pH is still between 8 and 9, which will affect the stable
operation of microbiological treatment; When the MTP system is over-
hauled, the quantity of alkaline wastewater increases, which will ser-
iously affect the stable operation of microbiological treatment system,
and even cause system paralysis. Since the late 1960s, Menton oil
refinery in America has used fluidized bed incinerators to treat the alka-
line wastewater and oily sludge (Baeyens & Van Puyvelde, 1994). After
treatment by the fluidized bed incinerator, the alkaline wastewater is
converted into CO2, N2, and steam, and the exhaust is almost odorless.
It is suggested to incinerate the alkaline wastewater produced by MTP
system, increase the number of incinerators and then send the alkaline
wastewater to the incinerator for incineration; Furthermore, some devel-
oped countries such as Europe, America, and Japan have been using
wet air oxidation to treat the alkaline wastewater for many years (Luan,
Jing, Piao, Liu, & Jin, 2017). Wet air oxidation can oxidize sulfide to
sodium thiosulfate or sulfate; thus, the odor can be eliminated. At the
same time, some organic matter can be oxidized to CO2. In addition,
some studies show that cavitation-based advanced oxidation processes
can effectively degrade sulfide ions and organic sulfides (Ga˛gol, Soltani,
Przyjazny, & Boczkaj, 2019).
2. Site odor problem.
3. The recycling ratio of wastewater is low. The recycling ratio is only
49.9-59.9%, and the discharge volume of concentrated brine is large.
4. Brine drainage affects the environment. In the recycling wastewater
treatment, the discharge volume of concentrated brine is 510 m3/h (the
maximum discharge is 697 m3/h). The concentrated brine is directly
discharged into the Xitian river without treatment, which has polluted
the environment of receiving water seriously.
Figure 4. Process flow of wastewater treatment plant.
4.2. Shenhua Baotou coal-to-olefin project

The project uses GE coal water slurry technology, the raw coal is anthra-
cite. The project was started in May 2007, completed in May 2010, put into
trial production in November 2010, commercialized production in January
2011, and passed the environmental protection acceptance in March 2013.

The wastewater mainly includes methanol to olefin (MTO) wastewater, coal
gasification wastewater, accident tank wastewater, and domestic wastewater.
Among them, MTO wastewater contains methanol, acetone, sodium
hydroxide, acetaldehyde, butene, butanone, and other small molecular
organic compounds, which are easy to be biodegraded.
Conventional A/O process is adopted, and the process flow is shown in
Figure 4. The process flow of recycling wastewater device is shown in
Figure 5.

The project uses GE coal water slurry technology. Gasification temperature
is 1300-1400 C. Coal gasification degree is high, thus the concentration of
organic matter in wastewater is low, but NH3-N concentration is relatively
high. In the gasification wastewater, COD is about 1000 mg/L, NH3-N is
about 350 mg/L, chloride ion is about 350 mg/L, total hardness is about
1100 mg/L, total alkalinity is about 600 mg/L, and SS is about 50 mg/L. The
MTO wastewater, coal gasification wastewater, accident tank wastewater,
and domestic wastewater show the characteristics of good biodegradability
and high NH3-N concentration after homogenizing in the regulating tank.
26 J. SHI ET AL.
Figure 5. The process flow of recycling wastewater device.
In the influent, COD is about 1300 mg/L, BOD is about 50 mg/L, and NH3-
N is about 250 mg/L; In the effluent, COD is about 60 mg/L, BOD is about
10 mg/L, and NH3-N is about 10 mg/L.

1. During the operation of inclined tube sedimentation tank, the influent
fluctuates greatly, leading to the unstable effect of flocculation. At the
end of the flocculation tank, the flocs are loose, the size of the flocs is
small, and the weight of the flocs is light, thus the flocs cannot settle in
time and accumulate a lot on the surface of inclined tube.
2. There are some problems in the design of settlement area of high-
density clarification tank. The problem of short flow is produced easily
in the tank. It is suggested to design the tank according to the
concept of high-density sedimentation tank. It is suggested to increase
the up-flow mixing facilities and modify the design of transition area,
which can reduce the dosage of chemicals.
3. There are no sealing measures or odor treatment measures.

4. The efficiency of total nitrogen (TN) removal in practical operation is
limited, so further measures should be taken to meet the increasing
environmental requirements.
4.3. China coal Yulin coal-to-olefin project

This project adopts the coal water slurry gasification technology of GE
company in the United States. The project is located in Yulin industrial
park. It plans to produce methanol from coal at a rate of 7.2 million t/year
and produce alkenes at a rate of 2.4 million t/year.

The wastewater of this project mainly includes production wastewater
(including gasification device, low-temperature methanol washing device,
MTO device, etc.), ground flushing wastewater, initial polluted rainwater,
and domestic sewage, etc. Because the coal gasification of this project
adopts GE coal water slurry gasification technology, the gasification
temperature is 1300-1400 C, and the coal gasification degree is high,
the concentration of organic matter in the gasification wastewater is
relatively low.
The wastewater treatment process is as follows: Regulation tank ! SBR
tank ! BAF ! Coagulation sedimentation þ neutralization tank.
After treatment, the wastewater reaches the first level of the
“Comprehensive sewage discharge standard” GB8978-1996, and then
the effluent enters the recycling wastewater treatment device for
advanced treatment.
The advanced treatment unit includes three main parts: coagulation reac-
tion tank, high efficiency clarifier, and V-type filter. The effluent of the
advanced treatment is used as supplementary water for the circulating
water system.

In the influent of SBR microbiological treatment system, COD is
700–800 mg/L, NH3-N is 160–200 mg/L, pH is 7–8, and mixed liquor sus-
pended solids (MLSS) is 5000–6000 mg/L. The SBR system is operated
every 8 h for a cycle, in which the aeration is 4–5 h, the precipitation is 1 h,
the decant water is 1 h, and the DO concentration in the aeration stage is
controlled as 2–7 mg/L. COD removal ratio of the SBR microbiological
treatment system is 95.0–96.7% (20–40 mg/L in the effluent), NH3-N
removal ratio is 98–99% ( 2 mg/L in the effluent).
28 J. SHI ET AL.

In the SBR process, denitrification is not fully completed, thus, the sludge
in the system will float up with the N2 generated by denitrification during
the precipitation process. Then the floating sludge will enter the BAF with
wastewater, affecting the effluent quality. It is suggested to further adjust
the main SBR process operational program, so as to fully denitrify in the
system, and reduce the rise of the sludge during the precipitation process
(Bournazou, Hooshiar, Arellano-Garcia, Wozny, & Lyberatos, 2013).
5. Status of wastewater treatment in other coal chemical projects

5.1. China coal Tuke coal chemical project
This project adopts the crushed coal pressurized gasifier technology, which
is located in the Ordos tuke industrial project area. The raw fuel coal of
the project comes from the local hujit mining area. The total investment is
20 billion yuan, and the construction scale is to produce 2 million t of syn-
thetic ammonium and 3.5 million t of urea per year. Among them, the
first-phase project investment is 9.51 billion yuan, with an annual output
of 1 million t of synthetic ammonium, 1.75 million t of urea, and 410 mil-
lion m3 of natural gas. The project was started in June 2011, and the com-
missioning was conducted successfully in February 2014.

EC anaerobic process ! Biological enhanced process ! Multi-stage A/O
process ! High density sedimentation tank ! Ozone contact oxidation
tank ! BAF ! V-type filter ! Clean water tank.

The characteristics of the wastewater in this project include: (1) There are
many surface-active substances in the wastewater, and the foam of aerobic
aeration is very large; (2) The oil in the wastewater is in the state of emul-
sion. When the emulsion is treated by oil separation and pressurized air
flotation, the removal effect is poor; (3) The main pollutants in the waste-
water are monophenol, polyphenol, NH3-N, organic nitrogen, fatty acid,
and other small amount of aromatic hydrocarbon, naphthalene, anthracene,
thiophene, pyridine, and other refractory organic compounds (Li et al.,
2018), and the biodegradability of wastewater is poor (B/C 0.3); (4) The
main pollution indicators in the wastewater are: COD 3500-4000 mg/L,
BOD 900-1120 mg/L, total phenol 600-800 mg/L, NH3-N 250-350 mg/L, and
wastewater volume 350 m3/d.
Construction of the project was started in May 2012. In January 2014,

the inlet load reached the 60-75% of the designed capacity, and 100% of
the effluent of the microbiological treatment system was reused (4500-6000
t/d). After being treated by the recycling wastewater station, 1496-1974 t/d
of concentrated brine enters the concentrated salt wastewater station every
day. After the treatment of concentrated salt wastewater station, 600 to 720
t/d of highly concentrated brine enters the evaporator, and 100 to 144 t/d
of highly concentrated brine enters the crystallizer, resulting in 12 to 20 t/d
of salt (Figure 6a).
The wastewater treatment engineering is mainly used for removing of
COD, NH3-N, and phenol. After 18 months of stable operation, the
removal ratios of COD, NH3-N, volatile phenol, and total phenol are 98%,
99%, 100%, and 98%, respectively. The COD in clean water tank is
44.5 mg/L and NH3-N is 0.4 mg/L (Figure 6b).

1. The numbers of online monitoring instruments are not enough and
cannot meet the requirements of automatic control. Some operating
equipment needs manual adjustment on site.
2. The production of crystal salt has no way out, the demand market is
limited. At present, the generated salt has been piled up in the factory’s
reserved land, which is difficult to sell, posing harms to the environ-
ment (Geng & Boufadel, 2015).
5.2. Xinjiang Guanghui coal chemical project

The project uses the crushed coal pressurized gasification technology. The
total investment of this project is 6.75 billion yuan, with an annual output
of 1.2 million t of methanol, 850,000 t of dimethyl ether, and 500 million t
of LNG (coal-based) per year in the first phase. In December 2011, the pro-
ject was completed and started the trial production.
The wastewater treatment system of this project adopts different treat-
ment processes for different wastewater sources. High concentration gasifi-
cation wastewater first enters the cooling tower. After cooling, the oil in
wastewater is removed by air flotation, then the wastewater enters the regu-
lating tank. Next, the effluent of regulating tank enters the multistage
anaerobic internal circulation (MIC) reactor for anaerobic biological pre-
treatment; The rest of the wastewater is first treated by grille, coagulation,
and gas flotation, and then mixed with the coal gasification wastewater in a
regulating tank. Next, the mixed wastewater is sent to hydrolysis and acid-
ification tank, contact oxidation tank, CAST, BAF, ozone oxidation tank.
30 J. SHI ET AL.
Figure 6. (a) Crystallized salt from the concentrated brine; (b) Effluents from each process.
Finally, the effluent is then lifted by the sewage pump to the multimedium
filter, activated carbon filter, ultrafiltration system, and reverse osmosis
device for advanced treatment.

At the beginning of the project, the corrosion of the gasifier was serious,
which was caused by the special coal quality. The inner wall corrosion of
gasifier is mainly due to the high content of sulfur, fluorine, and chlorine
in coal. Halogenated corrosion and sulfate corrosion can occur under cer-
tain conditions of temperature, pressure, and oxygen medium. This corro-
sion problem can be solved by using nickel - based wire to surfacing the
inner surface of gasifier. Now this problem has been basically solved, which
provides a reference for the application of moving bed gasification technol-
ogy in the same coal quality.
Because the high oil coal in Naomao lake is used in this project, the oil
content in the gasification wastewater is high (> 1000 mg/L in the influ-
ent), far exceeding the design value. As a result, the air flotation device is
severely foamized and cannot operate normally (Figure 7). And the overall
operation of the wastewater treatment in this project is bad. The concentra-
tions of COD and NH3-N in the influent are 4000 mg/L and 400 mg/L,
respectively. While COD and NH3-N in the effluent are 150-300 mg/L and
20-60 mg/L, respectively, which cannot meet the standards (First-level dis-
charge standards, GB8978-1996).

1. High COD concentration in the effluent.
High oil content in gasification wastewater leads to poor treatment effect
of microbiological treatment system and high concentration of COD in
the effluent. It is suggested that some technical transformation of the ori-
ginal air flotation process should be carried out to ensure that the oil con-
tent of wastewater entering the microbiological treatment system is less
than 20 mg/L.
2. Repeated setting of process.
Repeated setting of anaerobic reactor: the MIC reactor has the functions
of hydrolysis and acidification that macromolecular substances can be
hydrolyzed into small molecules through anaerobic treatment (Luo et al.,
2016), which is repeated in the function of the subsequent hydrolysis tank,
resulting in the low operating load of anaerobic process and poor effect;
The CAST tank is not designed properly. It performs the similar functions
as the contact oxidation tank, and the CAST tank increases the consump-
tion of alkalinity in the system.
3. The advanced treatment process is unreasonable.
The advanced treatment process of “BAF þ ozone” is unreasonable. The
ozone oxidation tank should be placed before the BAF. Catalytic ozonation
process applied as a pretreatment remarkably can improve the performance
of the unsatisfactory single MBR (Aghapour, Moussavi, & Yaghmaeian,
32 J. SHI ET AL.
Figure 7. (a) Phenol ammonia recovery unit; (b) Air flotation device; (c) Main microbiological
treatment process; (d) Anaerobic reactor.
2015). The organic matter in the wastewater should be modified by oxida-

tion first, and then it goes into BAF for further biological treatment and fil-
tration. It is suggested to carry out the technical transformation according
to the process of “ozone þ BAF”.
6. Summary
6.1. Pretreatment
Pretreatment includes precipitation, filtration, extraction, stripping, and
other units to remove part of the ash, oil, etc. Coal gasification wastewater
after dephenolization and NH3-N extraction, the volatile phenol, nonvola-

tile phenols, and NH3-N in the wastewater are removed by 90%, 65%, and
91%, respectively. COD is also removed by 90% (After pretreatment, COD
is 2000-5000 mg/L, NH3-N is 50-200 mg/L, and phenols is 200-1000 mg/L).
The fixed bed gasification wastewater is analyzed as an example. The
wastewater of the fixed bed gasification is usually treated by oil-gas-water
separation and phenol-ammonia recovery. With the principle of decom-
pression expansion, the gas and tar in the wastewater is separated by the
oil-gas-water separation device and each component is separated according
to the density difference of different components. The process flow of oil-
gas-water separation is simple, and the process device and operation are
relatively mature. Projects such as Harbin gasification plant, Yima gasifica-
tion plant, and Datang keqi coal-to-gas plant are running well. Due to the
great difference between the quality of raw coal and the design, there are
some problems in the operation of oil-gas-water separation device in the
two projects of Qinghua and Guanghui in Xinjiang, and the effluents of the
two projects cannot meet the qualified standards (First-level discharge
standards, GB8978-1996). Phenol ammonia recovery device is the key sec-
tion in the pretreatment of the fixed bed gasification wastewater. At present
in the pretreatment, the process of first de-ammonia with gas stripping
method and then de-phenolization with extraction method is a more avail-
able technique. There are not many phenol ammonia recovery devices in
operation in China, and the projects with good effects include Harbin gas-
ification, Datang keqi coal-to-gas, and Xinjiang qinghua coal-to-gas. After
the treatment of the phenol ammonia recovery device, total phenol is less
than 600 mg/L and COD is less than 3500 mg/L.
6.2. Organic wastewater treatment

The wastewater of the fixed bed gasification is the most complicated gasifi-
cation wastewater. Even after the phenol-ammonia recovery, the wastewater
still contains a large number of phenols, alkanes, heterocyclic, carboxylic
acids, esters, and other substances (complex composition and poor bio-
degradability) (Zhuang et al., 2018). The composition of fluidized bed gas-
ification wastewater is relatively simple and biodegradable.
In order to effectively remove the pollutants from wastewater, the micro-
biological treatment method combining anaerobic and aerobic treatment is
adopted widely in China (Jia, Han, Zhuang, & Hou, 2016). First, the large
molecular organic matter is converted into small molecular organic matter
by anaerobic biological treatment, and then the organic matter is removed
under aeration condition. Therefore, improving the biodegradability of
wastewater is the key to treat the fixed bed gasification wastewater
34 J. SHI ET AL.
(Zhuang, Hong, Han, & Shan, 2016). For enterprises adopting the fluidized
bed gasification technology, the composition of gasification wastewater is
relatively simple and the biodegradability is good. Therefore, conventional
microbiological treatment technology can meet the first-level discharge
standards of wastewater treatment. The concentration of organic pollutant
in coal direct liquefaction enterprise is high and it is difficult to treat. The
treatment of such wastewater is usually similar to the biological treatment
process of the fixed-bed gasification wastewater. In the treatment of high
concentration organic wastewater, it is found that EBA multistage micro-
biological combination process is a more suitable technique. After treat-
ment of EBA system, the wastewater can reach the first-level discharge
standards (GB8978-1996). COD removal ratio is more than 98%, and the
operation effect is stable.
6.3. Common issues

1. Foam
Air flotation will lead to the conversion of a large number of phenols and
aromatic hydrocarbons into cyclopentenone, pyridine derivatives, other het-
erocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene derivatives, and other refractory
organic compounds, and the biodegradability of wastewater will be reduced
(Grady, Dang, Harvey, Jobbagy, & Wang, 1988). The air floating tank on
the site was not covered, and it could be seen that a large number of black
and sticky foams were floating on the surface of the air floating tank, which
was mainly caused by the increase in the number of color groups in the
chemical structure of refractory organic compounds generated under the
action of oxygen, and these chemical substances adhered to the foams
(Cooper & Catchpole, 1973). The foams caused by the air flotation can be
basically removed by N2 flotation (Zhu et al., 2018). Further, when the
wastewater quality fluctuates, there is more foam in the microbiological
treatment system. The foam problem in the aeration tank of the microbio-
logical treatment system has been basically solved by means of hydraulic
defoaming and adding defoaming agent (Fu, Ji, Xia, & Guo, 2017).
2. Odor
The wastewater of the coal chemical industry contains a large number of
volatile organic compounds, among which phenolic substances are the
main ones. Phenolic substances are typical carcinogenic substances. Such
volatile organic compounds disperse around the plant, the odor is strong
and the operating environment is bad. Some processes are designed as an
open tank, and there are no sealing measures or odor treatment measures.
During operation, the odors generated by volatile substances and the
fermentation of pollutants will cause the overflow of the regulating tank and
affect the environment. It is suggested to seal the regulating tank and
increase the treatment facilities of odor (Lee, Moon, & Cho, 2017). Negative
pressure extraction measures should be adopted in the regulating tank to
send the odor to the treatment system. Furthermore, some photocatalytic
advanced oxidation processes show a potential in degradation of volatile
organic compounds in industrial effluents (Fernandes, Ga˛gol, Makos, Ali
Khan, & Boczkaj, 2019a; Fernandes, Makos, Wang, & Boczkaj, 2019b), which
can be further studied in the treatment of coal industry wastewater.
3. Evaporation pond and salt
The wastewater treatment system mentioned above is mainly designed
based on the situation of wastewater generation under normal working
conditions, but the discharge of wastewater under abnormal working con-
ditions is huge. For example, the equipment needs to be cleaned before
driving, which will produce tens of thousands m3 of wastewater containing
suspended substances and iron. The recycling wastewater station will pro-
duce the premembrane wastewater in the process of chemical premem-
brane, and the salt content in the premembrane wastewater is high because
a large number of chemicals are added in the premembrane process.
Wastewater treatment station sludge needs to be cultivated and acclimated,
usually in 3 to 6 months, during which time wastewater treatment often
fails to achieve the expected effect and needs to be discharged. The fluctu-
ation of wastewater quantity and quality can occur in the case of startup
and production of each process unit, which will have an impact on the sub-
sequent wastewater treatment.
At present, in the Datang olefin project, Datang keqi coal-to-gas project,
and Shenhua coal-to-oil project, the evaporation pond maintains high
wastewater level, and basically all the wastewater generated by abnormal
working conditions is stored. The wastewater level of the evaporating pond
can be reduced by adding the spraying device and the backwater pump to
return the wastewater from the evaporating pond to the treatment plant
(Silva, Gonzalez, & Suarez, 2017). The infiltration of the concentrated brine
in the evaporation pond may cause the local groundwater pollution, and
improper disposal of soluble salt may cause secondary pollution. At pre-
sent, there is no proper way to dispose the crystallized salt produced by
evaporation crystallization.
7. Conclusion
To sum up, most of the projects that have been put into operation at present
have different degrees of environmental problems. So far, none of the projects
36 J. SHI ET AL.
can achieve “zero discharge” of long-term stable wastewater. These projects

have the issues of improper selection of individual unit technology, insuffi-
cient consideration of system capacity (the design value cannot meet the
actual needs), and lack of disposal plan under abnormal working conditions
(a large amount of wastewater is discharged into the evaporation pond), mak-
ing it difficult to ensure the stable and long-term operation of the system.
The “zero discharge” of modern coal chemical industry wastewater is the
only way to coordinate the contradiction between ecological environment
and energy. However, in the actual operation of the projects, there are many
problems, such as the diffusion of odor, the foam of aerobic aeration, the
unreasonable process setup, the treatment of high toxic and refractory waste-
water, the treatment of concentrated brine, evaporation pond disposal, etc.
In order to realize the harmonious development of the coal chemical indus-
try and the environment, some suggestions are listed for the development of
modern coal chemical industry: (1) The existing coal chemical wastewater
treatment project should carry on the technical transformation and the
upgrade (Unreasonable process should be replaced), the proposed project
should further optimize the design (the design value should satisfy the actual
needs); (2) Planning the demonstration area of modern coal chemical indus-
try; (3) Improving the environmental law enforcement and supervision sys-
tem; (4) Disposal of high salt wastewater should be incorporated into the
management system; (5) Improving the enterprise management level
and controlling the pollution emissions; (6) Controlling the introduction
of pollutants from the source and realizing the whole process control;
(7) Using economic policies to make “zero discharge” a conscious act; and
(8) Cooperating and seeking the green development of the industry.
Funding
This work was supported by National key research and development program-China
(2017YFB0602804).
ORCID
Jingxin Shi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1504-5637
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Case study on wastewater treatment technology

Jingxin Shi, Chunyan Xu, Yuxing Han & Hongjun Han

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Case study on wastewater treatment technology of coal

KEYWORDS Coal chemical wastewater; pretreatment; microbiological treatment

high-quality resources, promote the development of chemical industry, steel,

dissolved solids (TDS) concentration is high (above 3000 mg/L), especially

important in the coal chemical wastewater treatment, and most organic

management ideas for energy conservation, emission reduction, and sus-

2. Status of wastewater treatment in coal-to-gas projects

2.1. Datang keqi coal-to-gas project

2.1.2. Technological process

Table 1. Statistics of wastewater treatment operational status of coal chemical projects.

technology ! Reactive coke adsorption ! Biological

Table 2. Comparison of wastewater treatment technologies of typical coal chemical projects.

Grille ! Adjusting tank ! Air flotation ! Grease trap ! Anaerobic

2.1.3. Running condition

2.1.4. Existing problems and suggestions

3. The dehydrated active coke powder in the advanced treatment section

4. Foam problem in the microbiological treatment system.

2.2. Xijiang qinghua coal-to-gas project

2.2.2. Technological process

2.2.3. Running condition

2.2.4. Existing problems and suggestions

2.3. Henan Yima coal-to-gas project

2.3.2. Technological process

sedimentation tank ! Air floating tank ! Oxidation tank ! Fiber ball

2.3.3. Running condition

2.3.4. Technical evaluation and field problem analysis

2.4. China coal longhua Harbin coal chemical project

2.4.2. Technological process

Biofilms are formed on fluidized biological fillers in the biological deam-

2.4.3. Running condition

2.4.4. Existing problems and suggestions

1. During operation, the equipment was corroded seriously. There were

3. Status of wastewater treatment in coal-to-oil projects

3.1.2. Technological process

The salt-containing wastewater is mainly discharged from the circulating

3.1.3. Running condition

3.1.4. Existing problems and suggestions

Boczkaj, 2018a; Fernandes, Makos, Khan, & Boczkaj, 2018b; Shah

3.2. Lu’an Shanxi Changzhi indirect coal-to-oil project

3.2.2. Technological process

3.2.3. Running condition

3.2.4. Existing problem

2. The main microbiological treatment tank is not covered, so the odor is

3.3. Yitai 160,000 t indirect coal-to-oil project

3.3.2. Technical evaluation and field problem analysis

Figure 3. Technological process of wastewater treatment.

3.3.3. Running condition

3.3.4. Problems and suggestions

4. Status of wastewater treatment in coal-to-olefin projects

4.1.2. Technological process

4.1.3. Running condition

double membrane method to reuse. The concentrated water from ultrafil-

4.1.4. Existing problems and suggestions

1. The treatment of MTP wastewater. The source of wastewater in this