Remediation of oil-contaminated soil

Abstract

The great quantities of the produced and transported oil cause high risk of accidental spill. The accidental oil spills are classified according to the significance and location of the site (green area of the city, protection zone, thinly populated land, etc.), volume of the spilled oil, size of the oil-contaminated site, availability for remediation (transport communications), and the type of oil-contaminated soil.
The choice of the remediation method depends on this classification and on time, passed from the moment of the accident. The cleanup of oil spill can be divided into three principal stages: the localization of the contaminated site, the collection and utilization of the spilled oil and recultivation of the contaminated soil. The liquidation works must be done after localization of the spill, namely, it is the collection and pumping of the oil with mechanical devices and subsequent oil return in the technological process.
It is known that mechanical and physico-chemical sanitation methods can not completely purify the oil-contaminated soils. The total purification is possible only as a result of oil biodegradation (biochemical oxidation). There are two main approaches to oil biodegradation:
I)stimulation of aboriginal microflora activity by formation of optimum conditions for itdevelopment; 2) introduction of the active hydrocarbons-oxidizing microbes (biopreparations)into contaminated soil.
During the field experiments the various maneuvers of oil-contaminated soil recultivation have been tested: loosening; fertilizing and liming; cleaning with biopreparations; sowing of plants stable to oil.