Remediation Techniques For Oil Spills
Remediation Techniques For Oil Spills
Remediation Techniques For Oil Spills
OIL SPILLS
CONTENTS
• Oil spills
• Why it is necessary to remediate?
• Remediation techniques for marine environment
• Remediation techniques for soil
OIL SPILLS
• Petroleum is one of the most important energy resource and a raw material for different industries.
• But oil spills during exploration, transportation, and refining can occur that cause some environmental
• There are various remediation techniques available for environmental restoration activities and can be
• Therefore, there are also some remediation techniques for oil spills as well in water or on land.
Oil Spills
• Oil spill is an environmental disaster that occurs due
to release of liquid petroleum into the environment.
• The largest spill that has taken place resulted into 210
million tons of oil loss occurred at Mexico in 2010.
• Remediation of oil spills is a serious issue because of its adverse effects on
the biosphere.
• Oil spreads on the top surface of water and form a horizontal smooth and
slippery surface known as slick.
• It forms thin coating on the bird’s feathers which loses its insulating
Why properties and results in freezing death.
Remediation • It will also reduce the amount of oxygen dissolving from air in water which
is necessary for marine life.
is Necessary • Oil spill has toxic impact on aquatic animals and damages their food
for Oil resources and habitats.
• Physical remediation methods are mostly to control oil spills in a water environment.
• There are two main steps in controlling the oil spills include containment and recovery.
• They are mainly used as a barrier to control the spreading oil spill without changing
its physical and chemical characteristics.
Physical Remediation Techniques
Different equipment's are used to control oil spills which are as
follows
(A) Boomers
• Boomers are floatation device which act like physical barriers
which would not allow the oil to spread in water so that oil could
be recovered.
• During recovery period, they are sailed through the heaviest
sections of the spill at slow speed and a shipping vessel scoops
the oil and traps it between the angle of the boom and the vessel
hull.
• They are also characterized into fence boomer, curtain boomer
and fire-resistant boomer on the basis of floating tendency,
material with which they are made weight and stopping
tendency.
PHYSICAL
REMEDIATION
TECHNIQUES
(B) Skimmers
• They helps in the recovery of spread oil
with the help of boomers.
• Oleophilic skimmers try to trap the oil
from the surface with help of belts, disks,
continuous chain of oleophilic material and
then oil is squeezed out in the recovery
tank.
• Weir skimmers use dam for trapping the
oil inside and then it can be pumped out
through a pipe or hose to storage tank for
recycling purpose. Type and the thickness
of oil spill determine the success of
skimming.
• Skimmers are effective and work efficiently
in calm water.
• But they can clogged by the debris in
• Absorbents which are oleophilic and hydrophobic in nature come out as a
good controller of oil spills.
• After skimming operation, adsorbent are used to clean the remaining oil.
• These adsorbents can be natural organic, inorganic or synthetic materials.
• Natural organic sorbents includes peat, hay, feathers, ground corncob
Adsorbent etc.
• They can soak up from 3 to 15 times their weight in oil.
Materials • Natural inorganic sorbent includes perlite vermiculite, glass, clay, wool,
sand and volcanic ash. They can absorb up to 4 to 20 times their weight
in oil.
• Synthetic absorbents include materials similar to plastic like polyethylene,
and nylon fibers. They can absorb up to 70 times weight in oil but cannot be
cleaned and reused.
Chemical Remediation
• Chemical remediation methods are among the best remediation techniques available for both on shore
and offshore.
• They not only block the spreading of oil spill but also protect the sensitive marine habitat.
• They are usually used in addition with physical methods in marine oil spill remediation.
• The chemicals which control oil spills include dispersants and solidifies.
DISPERSANTS AND SOLIDIFIERS
• For different hydrocarbons there are different microorganisms that have been used.
• They work with different degradation mechanisms depending on the type of hydrocarbon
present in oil.
• Good concentration of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus are growth inhibitor of
hydrocarbon-degrader.
• During bioremediation, microbes utilize chemical contaminants in the soil as an energy source
and, through oxidation-reduction reactions, metabolize the target contaminant into useable
energy for microbes.
• By-products (metabolites) released back into the environment are typically in a less toxic form
than the parent contaminants.
• For example, petroleum hydrocarbons can be degraded by microorganisms in the presence of
oxygen through aerobic respiration.
• The hydrocarbon loses electrons and is oxidized while oxygen gains electrons and is reduced.
• The result is formation of carbon dioxide and water .
Bioremediation
• When oxygen is limited in supply or absent, as in saturated or anaerobic soils or lake sediment,
• Generally, inorganic compounds such as nitrate, sulfate, ferric iron, manganese, or carbon
1) Presence of a contaminant
2) An electron acceptor
• Petroleum hydrocarbons are naturally occurring chemicals; therefore, microorganisms which are
capable of attenuating or degrading hydrocarbons exist in the environment.