Petroleum environmental fate

Most hydraulic fluid preparations start as chemical mixtures. For instance, there is a considerable area of overlap in the specific petroleum hydrocarbon chemicals contained in the mineral oil and polyalphaolefin hydraulic fluids. For all classes of hydraulic fluids, there may be similarities with other original products intended for use as lubricants. The complications involved in documenting the environmental fate of mixtures increase under conditions encountered at many NPL sites, where it may be hard to determine the precise original product associated with chemicals identified at an area in need of remediation. In most instances, available peer-reviewed literature, supplemented with data obtained from manufacturers of particular formulations and information in trade magazines, can supply information about the original hydraulic fluid preparations. At NPL sites, site-specific evaluations of specific chemicals may be the only feasible way to address concerns over environmental fate and potential exposure risks. 

Mineral Oil Hydraulic Fluids and Polyalphaolefin Hydraulic Fluids. Limited information about environmentally important physical and chemical properties is available for the mineral oil and water-in-oil emulsion hydraulic fluid products and components is presented in Tables 3-4, 3-5, and 3-7. Much of the available trade literature emphasizes properties desirable for the commercial end uses of the products as hydraulic fluids rather than the physical constants most useful in fate and transport analysis. Since the products are typically mixtures, the chief value of the trade literature is to identify specific chemical components, generally various petroleum hydrocarbons. Additional information on the properties of the various mineral oil formulations would make it easier to distinguish the toxicity and environmental effects and to trace the site contaminant s fate based on levels of distinguishing components. Improved information is especially needed on additives, some of which may be of more environmental and public health concern than the hydrocarbons that comprise the bulk of the mineral oil hydraulic fluids by weight. For the polyalphaolefin hydraulic fluids, basic physical and chemical properties related to assessing environmental fate and exposure risks are essentially unknown. Additional information for these types of hydraulic fluids is clearly needed. 

Petroleum products themselves are the source of the many components but do not adequately define total petroleum hydrocarbons. However, the composition of petroleum products assist in understanding the hydrocarbons that become environmental contaminants, but any ultimate exposure is also determined by how the product changes with use, by the nature of the release, and by the hydrocarbon s environmental fate. When petroleum products are released into the environment, changes occur that affect their potential effects significantly. Physical, chemical, and biological processes change the location and concentration of hydrocarbons at any particular site. 

J. B. Tillery, R. E. Thomas, Heavy metal contamination from petroleum production platforms in the central Gulf of Mexico, Proceedings of the Symp./Research into the environmental fate of effluent drilling fluids and cuttings, Washington, DC, 1980, 562-587. 

Mass-balance considerations, in particular the observed consumption of contaminants, were useful in showing the importance of biodegradation processes for limiting the mobility of petroleum hydrocarbons in groundwater systems. The mass-balance approach also contributed to our understanding of the environmental fate of chlorinated solvents in groundwater systems. In the 1980s, the observed behavior of chlorinated... 

Health assessment of the risks associated with petroleum hydrocarbons from environmental media are difficult because of the complex nature of petroleum products, lack of adequate knowledge about the movement of petroleum components in soil, and lack of knowledge about the toxicity of the components (Heath et al. 1993a). Health assessors often select surrogate or reference compounds (or combinations of compounds) to represent TPH so that toxicity and environmental fate can be... 

Bonazountas M. 1988. Mathematical pollutant fate modeling of petroleum products in soil systems. In Calabrese EJ, Kostecki, eds. Soils contaminated by petroleum Environmental and public health effects. New York, NY John Wiley and Sons, 31-97. 

Topics presented indude analysis of poKutants, soil physics, and environmental fate remediation techniques health effects regulations and case studies. A special section is included on petroleum contamination in ground water and soils. 

Petroleum Contaminated Soils Remediation Techniques, Environmental Fate, and Risk Assessment, Volume III... 

Neff, J.M. (2005). Composition, environmental fates, and biological effect of water-based drilling muds and cuttings discharged to the marine environment A synthesis and annotated bibliography. Submitted to Petroleum Environmental Research Forum (PERF). ht //perf.org/pdf/APIPERFreport.pdf, last visited 29 June 2012. Non-Black Fillers for Rubber, http //www.rtvanderbilt.com/NonBlackFillers.pdf, last visited 26 June 2012. 

Surfactant usage in the petroleum industry will probably increase as new applications are found and older applications like surfactant flooding are implemented. The regulatory situation now is different than the 1970s, and the use of chemicals carries with them the need to understand the environmental fate and effects of these chemicals in normal applications and in accidental releases. Environmental risk assessment is a systematic, yet simple, process for doing this. 

A knowledge of the molecular composition of a petroleum also allows environmentalists to consider the biological impact of environmental exposure. Increasingly, petroleum is being produced in and transported from remote areas of the world to refineries located closer to markets. Although only a minuscule fraction of that oil is released into the environment, the sheer volume involved has the potential for environmental damage. Molecular composition can not only identify the sources of contamination but also aids in understanding the fate and effects of the potentially hazardous components (7). 

We take as an example the fate of benzene ((/Ur,) as it migrates with groundwater flowing through an aquifer. Benzene is a common contaminant because it makes up much of the volatile fraction of gasoline and other petroleum products. It is a suspected carcinogen with an MCL (maximum contamination level) set by the US Environmental Protection Agency of 5 qg kg-1. 

Weisman, W. 1998. Analysis of Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Environmental Media. Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons Criteria Working Group Series, Vol. 1. Amherst Scientific Publishers, Amherst, MA.(See also Vol. 2, Composition of Petroleum Mixtures, 1998 Vol. 3, Selection of Representation Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons Fractions Based on Fate and Transport Considerations, 1997 Vol. 4, Development of Fraction-Specific Reference Doses and Reference Concentrations for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, 1997 and Vol. 5, Human Health Risk-Based Evaluation of Petroleum Contaminated Sites, Implementation of the Working Group Approach, 1999.)... 

Wade TL, Quinn JG. 1980. Incorporation, distribution, and fate of saturated petroleum hydrocarbons in sediments from a controlled marine ecosystem. Marine Environmental Research 3(1) 15-34. 

The book deals primarily with crude oils and petroleum products derived from crude oils. In addition to cleanup techniques, it covers how oil spills are measured and detected, and the properties of the oil and its long-term fate in the environment. The effects of an oil spill on the environment and the effectiveness of cleanup and control vary significantly with the type of oil spilled. The types of oil are reviewed to help the reader understand the different cleanup and control measures needed for different types of oil and environmental circumstances. A glossary of technical terms is provided at the back of the book. 

Volume 3 defines fractions of TPH that are expected to behave similarly in the environment. Analysis of environmental samples, fate and transport modeling, and risk assessment of petroleum contaminated sites is carried out in terms of these fractions. 

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