title: Environmental strategies to remove volatile aromatic fractions (BTEX) from petroleum industry wastewater using biomass.
abstract: This work investigates the potentials of peat and angico hardwood sawdust to remove BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and isomers of xylene) from the produced water discharged into aquatic systems during petroleum extraction. Peat and angico sawdust samples were pyrolyzed at 500°C, and found to contain n-alkenes, n-alkanes and pentacyclic triterpenes (peat), and 4-methoxyphenol, 1,4-dimethoxyphenol and 1,3,4-trimethoxyphenol (angico sawdust). In batch experiments, the removal capacities using peat were 32.4%, 50.0%, 63.0%, 67.8%, and 61.8% for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p-xylenes and o-xylene, respectively. This compared with removal capacities using angico sawdust of 20.2%, 36.4%, 52.8%, 57.8%, and 53.7% for these compounds respectively, demonstrating the superior performance of the peat.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), 49100-000 São Cristovão, SE, Brazil.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: L P C
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Romão
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: S C O
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Lucas
authors.forename: S T A
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Maciel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wisniewski
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Alexandre
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001554:Benzene / Q000737:chemistry; D001555:Benzene Derivatives / Q000737:chemistry; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D002849:Chromatography, Gas / Q000379:methods; D007221:Industry; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D010578:Petroleum; D012987:Soil; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013696:Temperature; D014050:Toluene / Q000737:chemistry; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*; D014992:Xylenes / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001555:Benzene Derivatives; D010578:Petroleum; D012987:Soil; D012997:Solvents; D014992:Xylenes; D014050:Toluene; D001554:Benzene; C004912:ethylbenzene