Assessment and Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Sites
By
Shaban Ibrahim1, Mohamed Khallaf2
(1) Faculty of Scince, Cairo, Egypt (2) faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Cairo, Egypt
Many petroleum industry sites have been contaminated from previous
activities or become contaminated through accidental releases of hydrocarbons.
These sites include old pits, onshore release sites of hydrocarbons, and places
where oil slicks from offshore releases are blown onshore. In many cases,
remediation will be required to restore the impacted area. Unfortunately, the
complex pore structure and fluid transport pathways of soil can make remediation
difficult. However, hydrocarbons can be found in various places. Most are
trapped by capillary pressure as a discrete liquid phase within the soil’s
pores. If a sufficient volume of hydrocarbons has been released, it can exist in
separate, mobile phase that floats on the groundwater. Hydrocarbons can also be
found as a vapor in air-saturated pores. Due to the complex distribution of
contaminants in soil, a comprehensive site assessment should be carried out, to
assess the potential impact to the human health and the environment before the
optimum
remediation process can be selected and properly implemented. Some of
remediation processes are suitable for cleaning up contaminated soil or
subsurface groundwater, while others are suitable for cleaning up contaminated
shorelines. These processes vary significantly in how completely they remove the
contaminants, in the time they require, and in their associated costs. Since the
most of the remediation processes entail their own environmental hazards .