In situ bioremediation of sludge pits at OIL Duliajan

Oil India Ltd, Duliajan, (OIL) unavoidably generates enormous quantity of tank bottom oily sludge as well as oil/oily effluent soaked soil waste during drilling operations which constitutes a major challenge for hazardous waste management as well as environment management. Another problem lies while drilling operation. There is a requirement to transfer crude oil to adjoining pits due to the emergency activities of drill operation. The immediate solution to handle this type of waste is to dump the waste into specially constructed oily sludge pits with a leachate collection system and a polymer lining to prevent the percolation of contamination into ground water. Transportation of oily waste (oily sludge/oil contaminated soil etc) from generation point to disposal site is very problematic. Needless to say, these pits are expensive and OIL requires these pits in large numbers. However, the area available with OIL at oil gathering stations, or at drilling sites for constructing more such sludge pits is indeed limited. TERI, New Delhi has developed an entirely new method, using bioremediation technique for degradation of oily sludge and waste water effluent sludge and other oily waste including formation water. The method involves the application of TERI made ?OILZAPPER? , a consortium of different types of microoganisms which degrades the oil in the contaminated system such as sludge, soil and water. When bacterial system ?Oilzapper? is applied on oily sludge, waste water effluent sludge, oil contaminated soil or water, the ?Oilzapper? microbes degrade the toxic hydrocarbon compounds of the sludge leaving behind non hazardous end products or metabolites and hence cause no harmful effects to the environment. Not only is this technique environmental friendly but also is highly cost effective when compared to storage of oily waste/oily sludge in sludge pits. Further, it shows that bioremediation technique could greatly help in solving the oil contamination and waste water effluent sludge waste management problems of OIL, Duliajan, Assam, environmental pollution and water pollution as well as save space problem, which is a premium.