Petroleum wastes

Aprill W, RC Sims, JL Sims, JE Mattews (1990) Assessing detoxification and degradation of wood preserving and petroleum wastes in contaminated soil. Waste Manag Res 8 45-65. 

Solvent extraction shows effectiveness in the removal of organic wastes such as PCBs, VOCs, halogenated solvents, and petroleum wastes, but is less effective in removing inorganic compounds.39 The removal of organic contaminants depends on the nature of the extracting solvent. Organic bound metals can become a constituent of the concentrated waste, which is undesirable because it can restrict both disposal and recycle options. 

U.S. EPA has shown that 90% of process water can be recycled to the front end of the system for slurry preparation, and the rest must be treated on site or transported to an off-site facility.80 During the aerobic process, some contaminated air may be formed and emitted from the reactor. Depending on the air characteristics, a compatible air pollution control device may be used, such as activated carbon. Slurry biodegradation has been shown to be successful in treating soils contaminated with soluble organics, PAHs, and petroleum waste. The process has been most effective with contaminant concentrations ranging from 2500 mg/kg to 250,000 mg/kg. 

Alumina column cleanup and separation of petroleum wastes... 

Cooper RE, Hedrick HG. 1976. Activity of soil bacteria on petroleum waste adjacent to an active oil well. Soil Sci 122(6) 331-338. 

The vendor claims that the TDR process can be used to treat soil and sludge contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, polynuclear aromatic compounds, solvents, dioxins, furans, organic pesticides and herbicides, solvents, petroleum wastes, as well as nonhalogenated volatile and semivolatile compounds. The treated residuals from the process include recovered water, oil that can be used for recycling as an alternative fuel or for recycling or can be disposed, and clean soil that can be used as backfill. The volume of treated sludge is reduced by as much as 95% by this thermal process, depending on the initial level of contaminants. 

The primary apphcation for this technology is the cleanup of heavily contaminated soils from abandoned herbicide and pesticide manufacturing sites and mixed petroleum wastes containing both hydrocarbon and heavy-metal contaminants. It also has potential as a remediation technique to restore fertility to agricultural soils suffering from overuse and salt buildup from irrigation. 

TREATMENT OF HAZARDOUS PETROCHEMICAL AND PETROLEUM WASTES Current, New and Emerging Technologies... 

Although flotation was developed as a separation process for mineral processing and applies lo the sulfides of copper, lead, zinc, iron-molybdenum, cobalt, nickel, and arsenic and to nonsullides, such as phosphates, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, iron oxides, limestone, feldspar, fluorite, chromite, tungstates, silica, coal, and rhodochrosilc, flotation also applies to nonmineral separations. Flotation is used in the water disposal field, particularly in connection with petroleum waste water cleanup. 

Neutral form is less active than the basic grade and is used to separate aldehydes, ketones, esters, and lactones, etc. Acidic form (pH 4 to 5) is used to separate strong acids and acidic pigments. Alumina column cleanup is also used to separate petroleum wastes. 

Castaldi, F. J. (2003). Tank-based bioremediation of petroleum waste sludges. Environmental Progress, 22, 25-36. 

For petroleum waste management a deep-well injection disposal process has long been used. This method transfers liquid wastes underground and away from fresh wastewater sources. It is also used to dispose of saltwater in oil fields. 

The wastewater to be disposed of should be low in volume, high in pollutant concentration, and must be difficult to treat with other methods. The wastewater should not react in the disposal zone and should also be biologically inactive. Nuclear wastes and petroleum wastes are often disposed of by this technique. 

Several processors attempted to use a mixed media (sand, anthracite) filter to remove residual oils. This technology was adopted from petroleum waste applications however, it did not function well in oilseeds applications, because of an inability to backwash these units caused by the highly viscous nature of these oils at ambient temperature. 

Landfarming, consisting of disposing of wastes in the upper layer of the soil, has been widely used for many years in the petroleum industry for disposing of oily petroleum wastes. It is a biological treatment method in which nutrients within the soil convert the hazardous waste into nonhazardous materials. 

It is learnt that even PMC inc., USA, the only virgin cresols manufacturer in USA, has decided to close down its cresol plant and sell out the facilities to interested buyers. Some other coal tar-based units and a few companies recovering cresols from petroleum waste liquors are also closed down. The message is very clear. Government regulations in most of the countries will not permit operations of those units which create pollution and upset the ecosystems. 

Among them the transformations concerning the pesticides and petroleum wastes will be discussed. 

Huge amounts of petroleum waste are produced annually in some countries of the region, like Brunei Darussalam, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea. Two latter countries and Taiwan produce significant quantities of radioactive waste. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Test Method 361 IB, Alumina Column Cleanup and Separation of Petroleum Wastes, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, pp. 1-7, 1996. 

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