Application of in situ fracturing process for the microbiological treatment of the zone not saturated with ground water (capillary zone) in case of soil sections burdened with organic contaminants.
"Prospects of life on earth depend on whether we can take action or not. Many persons make every effort individually as well, but we cannot achieve real success unless radical changes take place in the society, economy and politics."
David Attenborough
One branch of the environmental protection, soil purification technologies is the so-called in situ treatment which can take place by applying chemical and biological agents. It is essential for both approaches that the "meeting" of the agents and the contaminants can be designed and implemented as accurately as possible.
The contaminated soil sections are treated primarily with the ground water being involved; however, there are many such contamination incidents where the ground water cannot be applied as transfer medium.
Recognising it, the Kelet Út Ltd (KÚ), the S-Metalltech Ltd (SM), the Ökoproject Eger Ltd and the Bay Zoltán Alkalmazott Kutatási Nonprofit Ltd (BZN) established an R&D consortium. The purpose of the consortium was primarily to develop an effective technology through which the contaminated soil sections hardly treatable so far can be remediated successfully, mainly with biotechnological tools. For the development of the technology, the members of the consortium combined their own existing knowledge. The Kelet Út Ltd contributed to the project primarily with its building contractor’s, architectural experiences, while the S-Metalltech Ltd its remediation and fracturing experiences, the Ökoproject Eger Ltd its environmental protection designer engineer and the BZN its microbiological, bioremediation experiences. Following the professional negotiations, the first basic step of the project was the testing of the technology under real circumstances. With the permission of the Ministry of Defence, we tested the fracturing technology in the area of the barrack in Táborfalva and proved with modern, molecular biological and microbial activity tests that - with a simple technological process in a very large area and at low cost - effective soil purifying microorganisms can be spread which is the basic condition of a remediation technology.
During the project, the consortium conducted the field test using its own resources since it is considered as an investment in the demonstration of the use of the technology.
"Non-profit" preliminary tests of the R&D project
Members of the consortium:
Project indication
The contamination caused by various oil products is very frequent both in Hungary and abroad. The soil, the ground water and the built environment have fallen victim to the processes of the 20th century lacking environment consciousness. Remediation processes have been performed continuously since the regime change in Hungary. As a result of the earlier and present civil and military activities, the soils are still contaminated with oil products in very many places. Such areas are mainly in the vicinity of abandoned barracks, fuel stations, oil pipelines, fuel stations of diesel locomotives. For the present, almost 2.7-3.0 million m3 soil is contaminated with oil products in Hungary. It is almost 65% of the contaminated soils [Favi Karinfo]. According to the regulations, it is obligatory to remediate these contaminated areas. For almost 50% of the remediation processes, the earth is excavated and exchange of soil is done [Favi Karinfo]. In other cases, the contaminants are decomposed by accumulating the excavated earth in prisms in the vicinity; however, it takes very much time and its success is doubtful.
Possible solution:
Development of such remediation process which:
Innovation, advantages
It is a complete novelty worldwide that the efficiency of mixing of the biological agent (non pathogenic hydrocarbon decomposing organisms) into the soil and thus finding access to the contaminant is increased by blast-enhanced soil preparation; at the same time, by breaking up the soil, the air and the moisture can appear and flow in the soil aggregates, soil capillaries, which is an essential condition of intensive hydrocarbon decomposition. In other processes (such as ploughing the inoculants into the soil, getting it into the soil through inoculating bores, inoculating wells), the microorganisms can spread and perform the decomposition processes only in accordance with the infiltration coefficient of the medium, in most cases only in a restricted way in the vicinity of the engineering structure applied for the inoculation.
The method’s further advantage is that the engineering structures used for the soil purification do not need to be held, operated, maintained and guarded continuously on the site, even for several years in the contaminated areas of often several hundred hectare; the microorganisms and the plants are working without sensation.
The applicability of in situ blast-enhanced bioremediation process is well-established. The bacteria were detectable in a distance of 1.5-2 m from the filling-in point. After conducting further tests, we will be able to develop a technology performed in a stable and designable way! This technology will allow the cost-effective in situ remediation of the areas contaminated with oil products in Hungary and abroad.
All professional knowledge is available in the consortium.
The international significance of the technology is that instead of the on-site remediation with a quick and environment-friendly procedure of the soils contaminated with hydrocarbons found in great number in our country as well and the excavation and deposition of the soils in dangerous waste depots or disposal sites done so far, remediation can be performed by means of an innovative procedure. Through this process, it is possible to remediate the soils contaminated with hydrocarbons massed in the dangerous waste deposits as well, which means a significant step for the protection of our environment. We should emphasise that this technology is adapted to the purposes of the National Environmental Remediation Program (NERP) that is to the aim of detecting and knowing the contaminations and damages remained and accumulated in the geological medium and subsurface waters during the past century, exploring the extent of the damage and decreasing or eliminating the risk of contamination in the endangered areas. The contaminated areas, sources of contamination coming within the scope of NEPR amount to some 30-40 thousand pieces.
A technológia mind műszaki-tudományos, mind gazdasági-szociális
The technology is internationally significant both from technical-scientific and economic-social aspect.
From the summary prepared by the European Environment Agency in year 2014 it can be seen that for the present the expensive and environment contaminating ex situ processes dominate in remediation of contaminated areas (Progress in the management of contaminated sites in Europe, www.eea.europe.eu).
The technical-scientific novelty of the technology resides in that the blast-enhanced process releases the main barrier of in situ procedures applied now that is the difficulty of getting into the soil of the remediating substances.
The American Frac Rite Environmental Ltd. creates micro-breaks in the aquifer by hydraulic process and simultaneously with the fracturing process gets filling material into the breaks. Thus it will make it possible later for the agent to get into more cohesive layers as well through the breaks supported. Following the fracturing process, they examine the network of the micro-breaks by means of geophysical measurements. Through the procedure developed by us, increase of porosity involving the whole aquifer can be achieved when the agent applied will not communicate only via the micro-breaks and thus the treatment of the whole contaminated matrix can be implemented.
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