A new procedure for treatment of oily slurry using geotextile filters

A new procedure to mitigate the environmental impacts and reduce the cost of disposal of oil slurry is present in this paper. Waste from the petroleum industry has a high environmental impact. Systems for oil–water separation have been used to mitigate the contamination potential of these types of effluents. At the outlet of these systems, the oil is skimmed-off the surface, while the slurry is removed from the base. Due to the high concentration of contaminants, the disposal of this slurry is an environmentally hazardous practice. Usually this type of waste is disposed of in tanks or landfills after removal from the industrial plant. Basically, the proposed procedure utilizes drying beds with geotextile filters to both reduce the water content in the slurry and obtain a less contaminated effluent. Laboratory tests were carried out to simulate the drying system. Four types of filters were analyzed: two non-woven geotextiles, one woven geotextile, and a sand filter.