Remedial Measures To Treat Oil Spill Contamination

Posted by Oilism.com on September 2nd, 2010 at 02:41pm

Remedial Measures To Treat Oil Spill Contamination

In the recent past, due to extensive industrialization and urbanization oil spill contamination has become a primary concern. One of the most extensive contaminations through oil spills, especially crude oil spills is soil contamination. Crude oil being a complex mixture of organic molecules contains hydrocarbons and is prone to radical chemical, physical, and biological changes and easily penetrates into the soil.

Soil contamination through an oil spill cause deleterious effects, such as health hazards due to underground water contamination, change in soil pH, inhalation of the vaporized toxins from the contaminated soil and also eco-system destruction by making the soil unfit for agriculture. Vegetation contamination and destruction of essential microorganisms in the soil lead to virtual detrimental changes in the primary food chain as well.

Research to prevent soil contamination has led to various methods of oil spill containment. Few such methods are:

• In situ Treatment Methods: Using biological means, such as oil degradation by micro-organisms or chemical-physical process such as incineration are sone of the in situ treatment methods for oil spill cleanup. The drawback with these techniques is that they work better on sandy soils than on soils that contain clay.

• In situ Bioremediation: Oxygen and nutrients are injected into the contaminated soil to enhance the indigenous bacteria to break down the hydrocarbons and convert them into a nutrient source. Oil Gone Easy Home S-200 can be the best option for oil spill containment as this oil spill cleaner makes use of the bioremediation technology in the oil spill cleanup process.

• Air sparging: Also known as venting, this process involves vaporizing of extractions of the contaminants from the soil and the ground water.

• In situ steam injection: It is basically a thermal treatment method, where steam at a very high temperature and compressed air are injected into the contaminated soil for oil spill containment.

Under Oil Spills