Bechtel Acquires Chevron’s Wastewater Treatment Technology
Bechtel has purchased Chevron's Waste Water Treatment (WWT) Process, a technology that is designed to improve the efficiency of petroleum refineries. Bechtel says this acquisition complements the company’s current suite of refinery technologies and helps expand its presence in the refining industry.
The WWT Process is a proprietary, two-stage sour water stripping process that separates ammonia and hydrogen sulfide streams from sour waters generated by a refinery's process units. The technology also allows debottlenecking of sulfur plants and can reduce the cost of new sulfur units, especially in refineries that process high nitrogen crudes, Bechtel says.
The WWT Process was developed and improved by Chevron over the past 40 years. The process achieves higher purity separation and recovery of ammonia from sour water streams; reduces the size requirements of sulfur plants; and removes operating problems associated with ammonia salts in sulfur units. The stripped water is suitable for reuse or discharge through downstream treating facilities. The high purity hydrogen sulfide is a premium feed to conventional sulfur recovery units or sulfuric acid plants. And the ammonia may be recovered for commercial sale, internal use, or separately incinerated.
The WWT Process technology is managed by Bechtel Hydrocarbon Technology Solutions, Inc. (BHTS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bechtel that provides technology licensing and process consulting services to the oil and gas industry.
