WSP10774

• File Number: 8271.200
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program - Development and History - UCRB 13a Assessment
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1979
• Title: Costs of Wastewater Disposal in Coal Gasification and Oil Shale Processing
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

~
<:n
(.t)
0>

in situ retort water procuced in the Laramie Energy Research Center'3 ~50-tan

retort ~ay be used for characterization without the wate~ necessarily being

representativ~. An analysis of this ~ater17 is given in Table 4-8.

TABLE 4-8. ANALYSIS OF LERC SmULATED IN SITU RETORT WATER

Cons ti tuen t

Concentration
(mg/l)

10,150

4,960

38,000

5,325

8,800

8.6

,-

Ammonia nitrogen
Organic carbon

Alkalini ty
BOD
COD
pH (unit.s)

Figure 4.5 shows, as an example, a ~ater treatment scheme fc~ pr~cessing
a rnoCi!ied in situ ~etcrt water of a quality ill~strated ~n Table 4-8 to a
level suitable for use in a cooling t~wer ~~d for other process needs. ~e
emphasize that this is but one ?cssible approach and ~an1 alternatives are
possible. ~oreover, as noted below, ~~e s?ecific process use may ~eq~ire scme
additional treatment as, for ex~ple, acici:ication, softe~ing, etc.
The r~tcrt condensate is screened to remove coarse ~articul~te natcer ar.c

t~en take~ to s~ancar1 (e.g., API) gravity separators/decanters for rec~ve~l

of the stale oil. The recovered oil would ~ormally be t:eated in secondar/
heate=/t=eaters =o~ final water removal. The wa~er 5~reams from the pr~a~l
and seconda~l separators are t~en ccmbi~ed with the quenc~ ~a~er ecnde~sad
upst=eam of ~~e gas furification section. This combined stream is her~
refe~red to as the retort water.

T~e first major trea~ent step is removal of ammcnia and acid gases, and
this will always be cone by stri?ping. The normal procedure would be to st=ip
the )lH3, CO2 and H2S simult~~eously. In some processes the ammonia is held
back by appropriate reflux and wash, and ~he acid gases stripped p~eferentially.
The ammonia is ~~en obtained in r91at~vely pure ferm in a seconc st=i;pi~q
column. The proposec normal stripping is, in any case, used in recoveri~g
ammonia in the PHOSN~ W process. In this process, ammonia is separated frcm
the stripped acid gases by absorption in ~oni~~ phosphate solution.

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