Stabilization of petroleum contaminated drilling wastes by additives

Abstract

Petroleum industry has resulted in the release of large quantities of waste containing a variety of organic and inorganic pollutants, During the petroleum production, petroleum contaminated drilling muds and cuttings were disposed of in open pits called ''mud-pit'', So, there has been large quantities of petroleum contaminated wastes which present high risks to the environment. This study progressed in the field to demonstrate the construction feasibility and effectiveness in the site environment which was appropriate or not, The field study was conducted as a joint effort by researchers at Anadolu University and Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), Petroleum drilling wastes were collected from the mud-pit and mixed with pozzolanic materials such as lime, fly ash, bentonite clay, kaolinite clay, gypsum, klinker, portland cement and marble powder ia order to stabilize the petroleum drilling wastes. The stabilized wastes were deposited into boxes constructed in the field, After stabilization, the end product was chemically and physically stable and durable and also easy to handle and work with, In this study, physical and chemical properties of stabilized mixtures were investigated. The laboratory study showed that a mixture of petroleum drilling wastes + kaolinite clay (30%), petroleum drilling wastes + gypsum (10%) + bentonite clay (10%) and petroleum drilling wastes + klinker (15%) + lime (15%) + fly ash (15%) gave the best results with respect to oil content.