Thermal Treatment of Marine Soil Contaminated With Hydrocarbon

This report presents the work of thermal treatment of marine soil contaminated with
hydrocarbon. The aim of the project is to determine the optimum temperature and to find the
efficiency of thermal treatment in removing hydrocarbons contaminated in marine soil with
different penetration depths of the contaminated marine soil.
Marine soil pollution normally is contaminated with hydrocarbon through many
operations in petroleum exploration, production and transportation. In long term, the
organic hydrocarbons have resulted in major environmental issue because of their adverse
effect on human health and environment. The contaminated marine soil must be treated to
avoid the problems. There are four categorizes of treating technologies available:
chemical & physical treatments, biological treatments, solidification I stabilization and
thermal treatments. Normally the treatment method has been chosen based on the
efficiency of the treatments.
In the study, the soil samples were collected .frotn one of the marine site in Malaysia with
the different depth penetrations (surface area, I Ocm, 20cm, 30cm, 40cm and 50cm) and
were placed in the glass containers fitted with plastic screw lids. The contaminated soil
analyzed to determine the hydrocarbon groups contaminated using the Gas
Chromatography Mass Spectrum Unit (GCMS) and treated through thermal treatment
method using Fixed Bed Activated Unit. The temperatures were used are 300"C, 400"C,
500"C and 600"C, with the residence time of 94 minutes. The amounts of hydrocarbon
removing/reducing from the contaminated soil have been measured by UVNisible
Spectrophotometer. The efficiency of the thermal treatment method has been calculated
based on the amount of hydrocarbon removal from the contaminated soils.
After categorize these hydrocarbons into groups, the optimum temperature of the
treatment have been found.
The result show that the thermal treatment method on the samples which have 76%
containing hydrocarbon from alkanes group with their carbon chains between Cz to Czo
very efficient in removing hydrocarbon contaminants in the contaminated soil. The
optimum thermal treatment temperature was obtained about 300°C.