Emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the liquid injection incineration of petrochemical industrial wastewater

This study investigated the emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from stack flue gas and air pollution control device (APCD) effluent of the liquid injection incinerator (LII) disposing the petrochemical industrial wastewater, and PAH removal efficiencies of wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) and wet scrubber (WSB). The PAH carcinogenic potency were investigated with the benzo(a)pyrene equivalent concentration (BaPeq). The remarkably high total-BaPeq concentration (220 μg Nm−3) in the stack flue gas was much higher than those of several published emission sources, and indicated the possible influence on its surrounding environment. The total-PAH emission factors of the WESP, WSB and stack flue gas were 78.9, 95.7 and 30,900 μg L−1 wastewater, respectively. The removal efficiencies of total-PAHs were 0.254, 0.309 and 0.563% for WESP, WSB and overall, respectively, suggesting that the use of both WESP and WSB shows insignificant PAH removal efficiencies, and 99.4% of total-PAHs was directly emitted to the ambient air through the stack flue gas. This finding suggested that the better incineration efficiencies, and APCD removal efficiencies for disposing the petrochemical industrial wastewater are necessary in future.