Technique to Stop Underground Water Pollution by Crude Oil?

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Is there an underground technique that can stop underground water pollution by crude oil such as those in:

The oil-rich Niger Delta suffers from extensive petroleum contamination. 

A pilot study was conducted in the region of Ogoniland where one community, Ogale, has drinking water wells highly contaminated with a refined oil product.

In a 2011 study, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) sampled Ogale drinking water wells and detected numerous petroleum hydrocarbons, including benzene at concentrations as much as 1800 times higher than the USEPA drinking water standard.

UNEP recommended immediate provision of clean drinking water, medical surveillance, and a prospective cohort study. Although the Nigerian government has provided emergency drinking water, other UNEP recommendations have not been implemented.

We aimed to

Is there an underground technique that can stop underground water pollution by crude oil?

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18 Answers

  1. 1. Identify and eliminate the main source of impact (continuous release, underground storage tanks?)

    2. identify and eliminate secondary sources of impact or treated (impacted soil)

    3. Treat groundwater. Technology will depend on type of soil, impact extension, groundwater table depth, budget...generally TPH and volatile compounds are treated by means of Air tray Stripping (ATS) , Air sparging (AS), Soil vapor extraction (SVE) or combinated, and biological processes...it depends.

  2. Dear Dr. Umeadi,

        The tested water wells you mentioned must be providing a clear indication that these water wells are in the direct neighborhood of the source of contamination which might be an oil refinery or an oil and gas recovery plant. Oil and Gas production facilities can very easily reduce their contaminations to their neighborhoods when they are addressed and monitored by the government.

        Instead of realizing this very simple fact, you came to the conclusion that the whole region is contaminated, which is a wrong conclusion. Underground soil has the normal nature of disinfection: Which means that if you pollute the soil by dumping some waste water, next you move away by an appropriate safe distance of a 100 m, you can reasonably dig for a potable water well. This is the normal characteristic of the soil of our planet, a direct gift from our Creator.

        I am not quite sure of the different responses you have already received and their credibility, besides with all due respect the UN is a misleading scientific source, which is inducing a lot of misconceptions.

      

    1 Comment

    1. Engr Maher

      THANKS YOU EVER SO MUCH.

      We did request for help. I know help is not free, it is business based ON THIS PLATFORM.

      2ndly we can assure you that Nigeria is one of the largest markets in the world and growing. First I we must expaline that:

      Our organisation is EU/UK and USA collaboration based and  looking for Organisations with the MIND of tomorrow  to join us.

      It is our quest to find solution to the many problems on ground, yest big money to be made. First, let us all set up a strategy collectively how to do the business of doing business in the Developing countries. that everyone on this Water network is a winner. cheers    

       

  3. A melhor tecnologia que deve ser aplicada para solucionar o problema da contaminação da água de abastecimento público com óleo de petróleo/benzeno, é a tecnologia mais limpa por adsorção, utilizando materiais adsoventes alternativos e de baixo custo, como por exemplo: vermiculita ativada e hidrofobizada. Projeto desenvolvido por nossa equipe de pesquisadores no Brasil.

  4. Most economic would be to treat the water once it is extracted for dedicated types of application and use - to try prevent outright contamination will be a massive effort and unlikely find funding

    1 Comment

    1. Hallo wäre Nein es sicherlich nicht billiger. Wenn wir einen Teil der Schwebstoffe trennen können weiß wir noch nicht, wie in der Flüssigkeit gelöste Verschmutzung zu entfernen. Wie diese Verunreinigung unsichtbar gelöst ist, ist niemand zu sehen, ob die Reinigung für sofortige recycling optimiert ist. Und im schlimmsten Fall sehr gereinigte Flüssigkeit wird ein neutrales Element ohne interessante Eingaben. In welchem Zustand wird das Wasser-Molekül mit den Chemikalien, die in das Abwasser injiziert werden?

  6. In India crude oil contamination of drinking water sources, to my knowledge,  has not been commonly monitored. But there is need to increase awareness on this. Thanks for writing to me.

    1 Comment

  8. Have you explored the addition of Triple7 BioConcentrate https://envirofluid.com/worksafe-environmental-chemistries/accessories/spill-control/triple7-bio-concentrate or EOR https://envirofluid.com/triple7-eor-enhanced-oil-recovery - these two chemistries are 100% Biobased and will not harm groundwater whilst forcing oils and other similar pollutants to the surface for collection. You can contact Envirofluid on https://envirofluid.com/contact-us

    1 Comment

  9. Hello there is unfortunately no technique that can prevent pollution leaking any to groundwater. Especially when this pollution comes to saturation in the part of the ground just above underground reserves he must find a way out to the bottom. And if there wasn't this pollution we could maybe find a solution. It is similarly the droppings that are rejected such pollution in the environment. Nothing can stop him from polluting the groundwater. 

    1 Comment

    1. Thanks Mr Marius.

      That is the challenge for us researchers to deal with. I am confident that we shall find a way forward to tackling the issues.

      Cheers

      Umeadi

  10. Yes Dr Umeadi. There is only one solution to your problem. No chemicals, no machines, and especially no UNEP. The UN has the solution information. Why they are withholding it is a mystery.  In nature their are "oil eating" microbes. They are non pathogenic and non mutational. They will not stop eating until the hydrocarbons are gone.  No residue, no cleaning up after the cleanup. They breakdown all organic compounds into their elemental/nutritional state. 2 types of microbes. DNA and RNA. You and I are DNA along with almost everything on earth.  But at the beginning of our earths history RNA was the first microbes that appeared. It had one function. Recycle everything to release the building blocks of life.  When their is an excess they will balance it out.  Man has simply created a super excess of hydrocarbons. So a concentrated amount of these RNA microbes is required. No DNA bacteria or fungi have this genetic code to reduce organic compounds into elemental state.  My linked in file transfer is inoperative. please send me your email and I will send you the UN documents and their head scientist  (now deceased)  who developed the technology now called BIOREMEDIATION.  He was called the father of bioremediation.  my email is  biozomesales@biozome.com  I do use skype: guy_mcgowen.  You might be interested in the Sahara forest project.   

    1 Comment

  11. There exists a technology from our partners in Russia, to use bacteria, to destroy crude oil pollutions.

    1 Comment

  12. There are solutions and combinations to prevent, stop and remediate groundwater contaminatiin by hydrocarbons. They all are very case specific as depend on many different parameters. Please share some more info so that we can be of more help. 

    jordi.guimera@amphos21.com

    1 Comment

  13. The short answer is still no with any degree of practicality, cost and time, despite the questions and theoretical suggestions in some of the other responses. Spill prevention and barriers are appropriate and should be implemented,  but they  have no effect on current drinking water contamination status .  Remediation is different than stopping the contamination. Stopping is a function of source-natural or caused by human activities, and depends upon many legal and economic factors.   In situ remediation is actually case by case experimental and a very slow  process, and of very questionable success potential in real time.  Also, remediation by pump and treat is very slow and very expensive.

    So, with regard to providing safe drinking water, a local central treated bottled water provider could be cost effective. Whether in home point of use treatment would be effective and practical depends upon the degree and types of contamination. But also difficult if the numbers you cite are occurring.

    1 Comment

  14. There several parameters that I need to know before I can fully answer your question.  But with the information you provided the following mitigation techniques are ones that I have used successfully in an very similar situation

    1. Create a trench around the contaminated site (ensuring that the trench depth makes contact with a low hydraulic conductive clay) and fill the trench with activated bentonite (usually in a slurry form).  Assuming that the bentonite being used is of low hydraulic conductivity (at least

    1 Comment

  15. Bioremediation of oil spill/oil contaminated site at OIL - TERI

    www.teriin.org/upfiles/projects/ES/ES2006MB25.pdf

    1.  

    Duliajan, Assam. [Sponsor: Oil India Limited]. Executive summary. At Oil India Limited Duliajan, the Dikom oil well (Well no. 15) site was contaminated with crude ..

    1 Comment

  16. Dr Bonny:

    There are a couple of technologies that can be implemented to treat volatile organic contaminants (like Benzene and alike): "Air Sparging" and "Soil Vapor Extraction". Both works different by stripping the volatile organic contaminants out of the ground.

    Answered on by

    1 Comment

  17. There are several biological and chemical surfactants that may help. Also pump and treat is not out of the question. Each needs to to have a pilot study to find the most effective.   

  18. no

    2 Comments

    1. A number of the comments presented have merit but what you are asking poses a number of questions; any of which could use the technologies being suggested as part of a solution. Step #1 would be to stop the pollution at the source i.e. keep it from further contaminating the local ecosystem. Step #2 involves remedial activity which could include physical removal of the gross amount of contaminants in conjunction with microbial activity in order to remove the trace amounts, which still could represent significant volumes based upon the Ogoniland model. Imbibitive Technologies does not profess to have the panacea solution for the problem posed but our oil-sensitive, super-absorbent polymers, called Imbiber Beads have demonstrated their ability to capture and contain a broad range of the organic chemicals spectrum, including crude oil. Imbiber Beads can be used to immobilize contaminants in-situ without the threat of them leaching their contents; thereby localizing the release and preventing further contamination of the surrounding area. When mixed with crude oil and sand, for example, they will create a non-leaching material that can be used in road beds and footpaths; basically eliminating the liquid phase. In the event Imbiber Beads are used to absorb/imbibe crude oil they transform the oil into a semi-solid material that can literally be picked up in chunks, taken to a refinery and reclaimed through simple thermal recycling methodologies; effectively "closing the environmental loop". Imbiber Beads were originally a Dow Chemical invention back in the 1960s. Our Science Team are all ex-Dow Chemical scientists and engineers. More information can be obtained at our website - www.imbiberbeads.com. 

      1 Comment reply

      1. It has taking this long to revisiting this page, as the Restriction to links and subsequent pollution damages have been lifted for all to see 

    2. https://www.​theguardian.com/​environment/​gallery/2011/​aug/03/shell-​oil-spills-​niger-delta-in-​pictures

      2 Comment replies

      2. Hi! Dr Umeadi, Oil spills are usually an anthropogenic in terms of cause. I doubt if there is any technology that can stop the pollution without undertaking the necessary steps. So the most important thing to do is to clearly identify the source-pathway-receptor tripod, eliminate the source(s) and assess the risk. John Brinkman above has categorized the methodology. The level of oil pollution in the Niger delta has been devastating as captured by the UNEP Assessment report, and is likely going to take some times before the environment is restored. However, the following website may prove to be useful for your question: https://clu-in.org/techdirect/td092017.htm