Towards sustainable water use in industry: a case study of the oil refinery industry in Kazakhstan

The concept of “Sustainable water use” (SWU) aims to assure three pillars of sustainability related to the water sector: the social, environmental, and economical. Industrial development, especially in developing countries, requires an adequate response, as industrial activities are recognized as one of the major sources of water pollution, what leads to deterioration of environmental safety and wellbeing of the society. This thesis aims to understand to what extent the water use in the oil refinery industry in Kazakhstan is sustainable and to assess its impacts on the environment. A system approach was used to evaluate the current status of legislation, the treatment methods, the discharge process, and the effect on the environment in the sector. The weakness of the existing framework was identified by its lack of unified and transparent legislative standards for treatment processes, wastewater quality, and assessments of groundwater contamination with potential negative impact on public safety. Analysis of chemical characteristics of groundwater contamination, based on a seven-year monitoring program from one of the refineries, showed that groundwater has been affected, containing anthropogenically and naturally occurred contaminants, e.g. average exceedance for total petroleum hydrocarbons was 4 times, for total dissolved solids - 5 times, for chlorides - 9 times, for sodium - 6 times and total hardness was more than 6 times compared with World Health Organization and Kazakhstani standards. The analysis made it possible to specify the contribution of each contaminant to the overall pollution and to identify the most polluted sites. These pollutants are likely spreading towards areas with substantial groundwater use. The following investigation included performance of potential spreading of the TPH plume, based on historical observations. The results showed that zone at 2-6 km downstream the source of pollution could be affected by contaminated water, where concentrations of TPH exceeded permissible value. Based on performed investigations, this study highlights importance of implementation of suitable legislative standards with requirements for efficient water-saving techniques. Comparison with developed countries showed that Principles of Circular Economy (CE) (reduce pollution and reuse water) have been neglected in Kazakhstan. However, these principles have a potential to become a response to existing pressure of industrial activities and to achieve Sustainable Development as Driving force. Implementation of the CE for refineries in Kazakhstan requires firstly, the usage of advanced wastewater treatment techniques, and secondly, the introduction of the optimization scheme for water reuse, where regeneration units are established after each technological unit. Establishing criteria for water fees, wastewater quality, and recipients’ characteristics should follow respective and fair practices of the Environmental Impact Assessment, instead of looking for legislative loopholes. These practices include a detailed assessment of a real level of effluents’ toxicity and strict requirements to avoid the transfer of pollutants from one environmental media to another. Also, it is strongly recommended to update the list of contaminants for operational monitoring with inclusion of specific indicators of toxicity, such as PAHs, BTEX and others. It will let to understand the real harm caused by the ineffective systems of wastewater treatment and disposal from oil refineries in Kazakhstan.This thesis can be used as a trigger to drive and engage all stakeholders into a transparent dialogue about potential consequences of non-sustainable wastewater management in the industry in Kazakhstan. The potential actions might include development of new efficient monitoring programs, stimulation the industry to innovative and water-saving treatment methods, and a creation of a site remediation program

Assessing wastewater processes at oil refinery industry in Kazakhstan

This paper presents the first attempt to assess the wastewater treatment processes at the oil refinery sector in Kazakhstan and evaluate to what extent these processes follow international and national regulations regarding industrial waste water treatment. The assessment was performed considering wastewater discharge from refining processes at three factories in the country. While Kazakhstani environmental regulation promote the polluter pay principle and follow WHO guidelines, oil refinery factories in Kazakhstan still exceed the permissible concentration of pollutants in discharged wastewater. The national regulation allows discharge of wastewater to natural or artificial ponds by not exceeding the pollutant concentrations already existing in the pond. Therefore, the factories use ponds with already high concentration of pollutants, consequently allowing discharge of high concentration of pollutants (total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) exceeds concentration by 30-80 times, ammonia (NH4+) by 25 times, total dissolved solids (TDS) by 6 times, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) by 6 times and surfactants by 5 times) to pond. The reason for the initial high pond concentration is a result of a time gap between the start of pollution discharge by the factories and start of the environmental regulations. This leads to no incentive to treat wastewater in an efficient way. Additionally, the national law lacks regulations regarding detailed methodology to assess the pollutant substances in the discharged wastewater. Thus, the assessment by environmental authorities for each oil refinery is negotiated separately between the factory and the governmental body, giving the factory a strong position to define the parameters assessing the wastewater. As such, none of the factories provides analyses of, e.g., heavy metal contamination in discharged wastewater. TPH concentration in wastewater is often exceeded at each factory and there is no analysis done for different hydrocarbon fraction. Consequently, it is strongly recommended to provide a unified and transparent methodology for the country ́s oil refinery industry to assess all important pollutants in discharged wastewater and to include all types of hydrocarbon fractions

A state-of-the-art and future perspectives of transboundary rivers in the cold climate – a systematic review of Irtysh River

Study region Irtysh River Basin, a transboundary river laying in the North hemisphere and serving as a home for around 15 million people in China, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Study focus Considering existing pressures of climate change and anthropogenic activities on water resources, this research aims to evaluate recent (2010–2022) trends in research about a state-of-the-art of the river in a matter of relationships between hydrological budget, water quality, biodiversity, and policy issues. A literature review was carried out in English, Chinese, and Russian languages for defining key issues in the river management. New hydrological insights for the region Melting of permafrost, glaciers, and snow in the upstream mountains of the River should be considered as one of the key processes in the hydrological budget. However, the high impact of evapotranspiration rate could offset the effect of the increased melting rate along the basin. Efficient operating of existing large dams and reservoirs and the planning of future installations deserves special attention in assurance of the respective water level for restoration of the ecological diversity of the basin. Implementation of water-saving techniques and restoration of tributaries of Irtysh also play a significant role in keeping the resilience of the river. Handling historical and existing contamination will also guarantee restoration of the river health. The basin management still lacks tripartite agreement, however the principles of hydrosolidarity and no-harm effect are followed by involved countries

Assessment of groundwater safety surrounding contaminated water storage sites using multivariate statistical analysis and Heckman selection model: a case study of Kazakhstan

Petrochemical enterprises in Kazakhstan discharge polluted wastewater into special recipients. Contaminants infiltrate through the soil into the groundwater, which potentially affects public health and environment safety. This paper presents the evaluation of a 7-year monitoring program from one of the factories and includes nineteen variables from nine wells during 2013–2019. Several multivariate statistical techniques were used to analyse the data: Pearson’s correlation matrix, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The analysis made it possible to specify the contribution of each contaminant to the overall pollution and to identify the most polluted sites. The results also show that concentrations of pollutants in groundwater exceeded both the World Health Organization and Kazakhstani standards for drinking water. For example, average exceedance for total petroleum hydrocarbons was 4 times, for total dissolved solids—5 times, for chlorides—9 times, for sodium—6 times, and total hardness was more than 6 times. It is concluded that host geology and effluents from the petrochemical industrial cluster influence the groundwater quality. Heckman two-step regression analysis was applied to assess the bias of completed analysis for each pollutant, especially to determine a contribution of toxic pollutants into total contamination. The study confirms a high loading of anthropogenic contamination to groundwater from the petrochemical industry coupled with natural geochemical processes

Pitfalls of wastewater treatment in oil refinery enterprises in Kazakhstan-a system approach

The present article is an assessment of wastewater treatment processes in the oil refinery sector in Kazakhstan by comparing relevant experience of developed and developing countries. The legislation in this sphere, the treatment methods, the discharge process and the effect on the environment were evaluated following international and national regulations. In our study, the wastewater systems in three factories in Kazakhstan were assessed. Results show that, even though the environmental regulation in Kazakhstan promotes the polluter pays principle and follows the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, the oil refinery plants in Kazakhstan still contain exceeding concentrations of pollutants in their effluents. One issue is that the local legislation allows disposal of wastewater to natural or artificial ponds as long as the concentrations of pollutants in effluents are less than the already existing concentrations in the pond. Consequently, the factories can use ponds with an initially high concentration of contaminants. The high initial concentration of pollutants in the pond water is due to wastewater discharged before the implementation of current environmental regulations. This issue in the current legislation leads to the situation where there is no incentive for efficient wastewater treatment. The national law also lacks regulations regarding which methodology should be used to assess the pollutants in the wastewater. Thus, the control by national environmental office for each enterprise is negotiated separately between the factory and the governmental body. This gives the factory a strong position to define the parameters assessing the effluents. This has led to none of the factories measuring, e.g., heavy metals in discharged wastewater. Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) concentration in wastewater is often exceeded at each factory and there is no analysis done for different hydrocarbon fraction. To overcome the issues described in the present study, we strongly recommended a unified and transparent methodology for the country's oil refinery industry to assess important pollutants in discharged wastewater

Oil refinery and water pollution in the context of sustainable development : Developing and developed countries

This paper is an attempt to evaluate the impact of the oil refinery industry on water resources worldwide from the point of view of sustainable development (SD). The local laws, reports from the industry and environmental agencies, conditions of the final disposal system were analysed. Key aspects, such as existing approaches for treatment systems, quality of treated wastewater, and ways to assure the safety of them were compared. The comparison between industrialised (represented by the USA and EU) and developing countries (Kazakhstan used as an example) shows that several obstacles, such as loopholes in legislation, historical contamination, and miscommunicating between stakeholders, exist, despite the formal promotion of the SD concept. That policy should be implemented based on the relevant scientific investigation through the possibility of integrating the respective technological development, an adequate system of environmental impact assessment, and fair operational monitoring

Assessing data‐scarce contaminated groundwater sites surrounding petrochemical industries

A common problem when studying groundwater contamination in low-income countries is that data required for a detailed risk assessment are limited. This study presents a method for assessment of the potential impact of groundwater contamination by total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in a data-scarce region. Groundwater modeling, using the MODFLOW, was used to simulate regional-scale flow pattern. Then, a semi-analytical contamination transport model was calibrated by minimization of the absolute errors between measured and modeled concentrations. The method was applied to a case study in Kazakhstan to assess the potential spreading of a TPH plume, based on historical observations. The limited data included general information about the local geology, observations of GW level in the area, and concentrations during 5 years of TPH in monitoring wells surrounding the source of the pollution. The results show that the plume could spread up to 2–6 km from the source, depending on estimate of the initial concentrations, until the concentration reaches permissible levels. Sensitivity analysis identified parameters of longitudinal and transverse dynamic dispersivity together with the plume of TPH spreading, as the priority subjects for future investigations. The proposed approach can be used as a tool for governmental and municipal decision-makers to better plan the usage of affected groundwater sites in data-scarce regions. It can also help to decrease the negative impact of contaminated GW on human health and to better manage the industrial pollution