History of water integration in the oil refining industry – a systematic review

The process of water use in the oil refinery industry remains a hot topic due to its toxic effect on environment and huge water consumption. The implementation of the techniques for decreasing environmental pressure by minimizing freshwater abstraction, reducing wastewater generation, and decreasing associated costs is still an actual and emerging topic for application. This paper presents a systematic review dedicated to the application of water integration in oil refineries. In total, 31 relevant papers were identified and investigated. The evolution of the processing and water-associated units, variations in the contaminants, the history of techniques development, and the selection of objective functions were investigated. The majority of the related research has been dedicated to testing new water pinch models aiming for freshwater minimization. The technological advances and development of mathematical programming techniques moved focus towards building superstructures and responding to challenges related to water scarcity and cost optimization. The application of water integration in refineries towards minimizing water footprint indicates a crucial topic that needs more investigation. Incorporating water integration within the framework of the circular economy and exploring the water-energy nexus hold significant promise yet remain under-investigated research directions.