Abstract
In petroleum exploration drilling cuttings are generated, which are toxic residues that contain significant amounts of oil. The oil levels within the cuttings are a risk for marine and terrestrial environments. This study was carried out to investigate the removal of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in perforation cuttings (OBDC) by a washing process in which humic acids (HA) were used as surfactants. The cuttings contained 114 372 mg/kg of TPH, which were washed with HA solutions, resulting in 80 % removal of OBDC contaminants, applying a washing an additional water rinse. The process effectiveness was found strongly dependent on the HA solution concentration, the highest removal rates were attained using solutions in the range of 2500 to 3000 mg/L, and lower concentrations yielded removal rates lower than 70 %. Comparing the use of HA versus synthetic surfactants, such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and tween-20 (TW20), both resulted in lower removal efficiency than HA. An additional advantage of HA is that it is a natural material, therefore there is no risk of toxic side effects that occur with synthetic surfactants.
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