Restoring soil fertility that has been contaminated by oil spills

The oil spillage cases often occurs. Most cases occur as a result of the process in ships, offshore drilling, or shipwreck.

Rice University scientists are cleaning soil contaminated by oil spills in a way that saves energy and reclaims the soil's fertility. (Picture from: Trussty)

Not only at sea, the oil spills also frequently occurs on land, contaminating the soil and also environment. According to the data, 98% of oil spill cases worldwide occurs on land. Noted, governments and industries around the world spent $10 billion each year to clean up the oil spills.

Accordingly, a number of scientists from Rice University developed the technologies to restore soil fertility and wasted energy from the soil that has been contaminated by the oil spill.

With the pyrolysis technique, scientists from Rice University reduce the amount of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) below standard, and also leaves a carbon footprint that is useful in soil that had been contaminated by the oil spill. (Picture from: ScienceDaily)

They use a process called pyrolysis, which involves heating the contaminated soil and loss of oxygen content. The process is considered more environmentally friendly than standard combustion techniques previously done.

By doing pyrolysis of the contaminated soil for three hours is not only able to reduce the amount of petroleum hydrocarbons remaining, but also can improve fertility by altering the remaining carbon into charcoal.

"Our thinking is true that by eliminating toxic pollutants and hydrophobic can resist water, also added a number of carbon and nutrients, we can enhance the growth of plants using soil results pyrolysis of this," said Pedro Alvarez, Rice environmental engineer in the team. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC | SCIENCEDAILY]

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