Remediation of sites contaminated by oil refinery operations

Abstract

AbstractThe oil industry contributes to contamination of groundwater and aquifers beneath refineries and oil terminals. The successful remediation of a contaminated site requires understanding both the hydrogeology and the nature and extent of contamination. The physical–chemical and biological mechanisms that govern contaminant release, transport and fate in soils, sediments, and associated fluid phases must be understood and quantified. In addition, understanding the flow and entrapment of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) including lighter‐than‐water nonaqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) in contaminated aquifers is important for the effective design of the recovery and remediation schemes. Current remedial technologies and risk assessment techniques to remediate former oil refinery sites contaminated by NAPLs are described in this paper. Emphasis is given to the most promising remediation techniques such as pump‐and‐treat, on‐site bioremediation, phytoremediation, in situ soil washing, and thermal‐based technologies, such as steam‐enhanced extraction. Some enhancements to pump‐and‐treat techniques such as solvent flushing, polymer enhanced flushing, and air stripping are also discussed. Finally, important risk‐based cleanup criteria associated with contaminated soil at refineries are presented. © 2005 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2005