Reuse of Water in Typical Indian Oil Refinery

The raw water requirement for any oil refinery is very huge. It is mainly used as process water, cooling water, fire water, horticultural water, and drinking water. The drinking water is supplied after treating the raw water. The desired amount of raw water is stored in the raw water reservoir within the refinery complex. The raw water is taken from nearest raw water source, which is mostly a natural river flowing nearest to the complex. The source of waste water in oil refinery is oily sewer, contaminated oily sewer, and sanitary sewer. All these waste waters are treated, and the treated water is discharged to nearest natural drainage. The storm water generated from oil refinery is discharged to nearest natural drainage, which is not necessarily the same source of supply. This paper presents sustainable method so that augmentation of makeup raw water in a typical Indian refinery shall be fulfilled by treated water along with storm water received from the complex. The excess water shall be suitably collected for use in dry days before discharging to the natural source.