..

SPE 25157

Remediation of the Contaminated Ocean Floor Around Offshore

Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico
m &chtyd FWdaunErrdnoas

C,5.Fang,*
Kaiqin
Tao,andJongHcwLin,
U.ofSouthwestern
Louisiana
●SPEMember

~ lwrSoCiMy
of
PO!rOlwm Englnnm, Inc.

lhtcwwnpropuodkf~ 8ttrMsPElntomdb@
$-m on Oilfbtd (Winbtry twlcl in New 0flean8, LA, U. S.A., Much 2-5, 1SE2.

. plafformsin the Gulf of Mxico are

me previouseffortof cleaningthe
contaminatedoceanflooramuml
Offskxe platformsin * Gulf of
Msxicohas beenevaluatedandan
~ cl- P--s is P=-
Sem@ basedcm the preliminary
studywhichuses laboralmyexp2ri-
HW data,fielddab and cmputer
calculationsm improvedcleaning
● saw of the offshoreplatfoms in the
P~ inchxks filtration, air
flotationand carbonadsorption
operatims. me iqxmved process
can reducethe organicccqomds
returningto the axan frcm 841 ppn
to appmximakely5 pp.
For decadesin offs?’mre
drilling,the
drillcuttingswere separatedfran
&e cimulattiqdrillingfluidby the
shaleshaluxand hydmcychne, and
dischaxyedm the ocean. The drilling solidsdischargedto the Gulf of Mexico
fluiditselfwas dischaqxl to the
oceanintemit*tly m mainM.n its
~ duringthe drilling chargesinclude110,210tons/yearof
properties
process.Thesedischrges containmany drillingfluidadditivesand 3,310,000
environnsntallyundesirable
ckmwals,
~ as ~ns, ~ addi-
tivesand heavymetals.The tonnages
of thesediacharqesdiachargd to the
Gulfof MexicOin recentyears-
estimatedand ~wportd * Mmzie [11
d Hilenan[21. Asaresult, the
oceanfloorrwar acxmof the offshme
coveredby contaminated Sediment.ocean
currentis not as effectivein washing
out the discardd oceanmis as pre-
viouslybeliewd. Standingon the plat-
foxmone can see oil bubblesrise to
the surfaceof the water.Therehave
been SclnestU3iesand debatesaboutthe
envimxmentaleffectof thesedischarges
[1,2,3]. An atlmpt was mde to clean
Gulf of Fkxim [41.
Thereare alsodiscussionsin industry
and Congresson the @ential applica-
tionof offslmreplatformsas artificial
reefsfor marinelife.Hmever, a ckan
oceanfloornear plafformswill be needsd
in developinga healthyeccsystemfor
artificialreefs.
QLJNWI’IYAND CHMXTEM E?l’IC$
OF DHXARGES
Estimtsd tonnagesof drillingfluidsand
franoffskm operatims in 1975-1978
were re~rted @ Hilemn [2]. The dis-
tans/yearof trillcuttings.Accordinglx
Menzie [1], drill- fluidand drillcut-
tingsdiacharqedare, respectively, 520-
709 tonsper well and 823-1285tonsper
well in explorationoperation,and 7090-
32,820tonsper platformand 9000-27,000
tim pex platfom in development opera-
tim. l’hese dischargescontainclays,

61

RJ39EDIATICN
OF THE (X3NTAMINATEII
2 OFFSKRE PLATNMYS 1 THE GULF OF MEXICO
AFUxlND
hydrocarbons,
organicand inorganic
aMitives, swh as barite,polymers,
and Chranate[1,5]
● chrcmtographd was found+m lx e a
The sedinumton the ocean floornear
an offshoreproductionplatformsuch
asinthe Gulfof Micois amix-
tureof gravels,brokenoystershells,
sandand silt. It has a smll similar
to thatof dieseloil.A chenical
analysisof the sedhmt was performd
usingthe gravimetric methodrevealing
the totalhydmcabm s of the sediment
mnple to be 3,480ppn. ‘IWs is a con-
servativefigure,sincea portionof
lighth~s mY k= boil~ off
h the analysisusingthe gravimtric
Inetl%)d
[4]. _ the= h~ns
in the sedtit benzeneand tolume
were identifiedas toxicpollutants
in the EPA’stoxicpollutit list.No
analyslsfor heavymetalswas per-
formd at this tire.
CLEANIWTH ECCEANFKKM
Thetechnologyused bclean the mean
floornearplatfoms in the Gulf ot
I’&xitiis shmn in Figures1 and 2. It
is basif.ally
a seriesof mchanical
separations.When a decisionis mde
to cleanthe oceanfloorof a given
platform,a bargewith cleaningFaci-
litiesis towedto the area.A suction
devicewith a hose is l-red b the
cceanfloorb takewateralongwith
gravels,sandand siltat the rateof
300 gpn (1136litershnin]as shuwnin
Figure1. TW shaleshakersare used
to separatelargepiecesof gravels
and sandparticles.‘l& influentto
shakersoftenhas a smellsimilarto
thatof dieselfuel.As shornin
Figure2, the mixtureof water,sand
and silt,afterbeingseparatedfrm
coarsesolidsin the shale shakers,
is fed to *sanders where sandad a
partof * siltare separatedfran
the water. Watercontainingapprox-
imately5% of silt is dischargedb
a largesettlingtankwhilewater in
thetopof thesettlingtankis re-
mvedadd ischargedtotheocaan
ma-c
P
OCE?WFiiR
SEW 251!;7
A smple of waterdischaqed back to
the oceanwas analyzedwith a gai
wide rangeof arcmtic and puaff’ I
hydrocarbonswith a totalhydromrbn
concentrationof 841.1~. The re-
sultsare shornin Tables1 and 2. Itis
interestingto see that thereis 158.5
ppn of benzenein the returningwater.
Gravelfrm shaleshakersand the mix-
tureof sandand silt fmn desanders
are collectedand storedin sludge
tZiZlkS
. ~rOXiJ!Eltdy 300 bbl (47,696
liters)of thesesolidsare collected
eachday and storedin the barge’s
threesludgetanks.After fourdays of
operation, when thesetanksare full,
the b~eistowed back ti the shore
to eqty these*s, ‘l%econtentsare
thendischaqed ti an incineration
plant.It takesapproximately tm days
tien@ya ndc MnthethreeWks. A
crew of fourpersonsare enployedon
the barge,and the cost of the retire
operationis approximately $30,000per
week.
‘l%isprojecthas its successand Mni-
tation.The recoveryof 300 bbl/day
(47,696liters/day) of solidsand
ssdimnt frun the oceanfloor,which
contain3480pEIRof hydrocarbons and
sme heavymetals (baritesand others) ,
is its importantsuccess.Sincethe
processusesmechanicalseparations,
it camot removethe dissolvedhydr-
ocarbons.
AIR FUYIWJ!ION
Figure3 showsa mdified cleaning
process,which is the resultof experi-
mentaldata and a feasibilitystudy.
@ desanderis replacxxl ~ a rotaq
vacum filterto reducethe amunt of
water in tie sludge.Aftercoarse
solidsare separatedby a shaleshaker,
solidsare retuned to the ocean,and
watercontainingsilt is fed to a
rotaryvacum filter.The siltalong
with insolubleorganiccuqxxmis is
separatedfrm wateras filtercake.
Basedon the previouse~riences, the
●
SPE 25157 C. S. FANG
amunt of filtercake is approxi-
mately300 bbl/day,with approxi-
mately3480~ of O~FUliC ccxn-
pounds. The filterarea is 88.5ft2
(8.22m2) for the fluw rateof 300
gpn. The cost of rckaryvacuumfil-
ter is $42,500(1992).
Filtercake is storedand later
shippedback to an onlandfacili~
for treatment.If theseparaffins,
franmnane tooctacosane,and in-
solubleamnatics, are judgedto be
envimrnnmtily acc@table in the
oceanfloor,filtercake can be dis-
chargedto the Ocm.
Thereare thzeegrcp of ozganic
~. The firs~one is insolu-
ble ox capumls adsorbd on
* surfaceof fine solids.The
secundand thirdores are soluble
and tisif ied oqanic ocmpounds.
~ first_ is separatedfran
the Strezmlby filtrationas indi-
Catedabovee’l! heothertmgroups
are stillim the water,~h is
~ to an air flotationunit:
The majorconcexnin thisnmdified
clesningprocessis benzene,
tilueneand xylene,whichare wter
solubleas skwn in Tables1 and 2.
Air flotation,eitherinducedair
flotation(IAF)or dissolvedair
flotition(DAF),has been kn9wnto
removetisified oil frcmwater
&fectively. Fielddab shows
*t it am redwe enmilsified oil
fmmnseveralhundredppnto50~
or less.The separationefficiency,
acco~ to E%enfelder[6],varies
frm 70% to 93%.‘m? mm recent
unpublisheddata frunan IN? vendor
indicatea higherefficiencywith
an inprovedejector.
Racently,air pollutionwas found
to ramve sunsof the dissolved
Ogic ~ - * gram benzeneper gram carbon[8], 194
phenmma of gas-liquidinter@ase
mass transfer.It, in effect,is a
processof air stripping.Figure4
63
3
showsthe resultsof bench-scaleair
stri~ing tests.The testsdemonstrate
the reductionof benzeneconcentration
at variousretentiontimesin a batch
operation.
Basedon the laboratoryanalysisand
volubility data [7]givenin Tables1
and 2, the concentrationof water solu-
ble organicccnpounds,which imclude
heptane(12. Oppn),octane (14~,
saturatd),benzene(158.5ppn)~ toluene
(7.8ppn) and xylenes(14.1~) , is
206 ppn. l!heconcentrationof emulsified
organicccqounds is 634.7ppn. The
totalorganicccrq?ounds in waterfed to
the air flotationunit is 841.1ppn.
Thesewatersolubleorganicampmnds
are volatile.
The mst ccnnmnpracticein a full
scaleaix flo-tion unit is to run it
with 10 to 15 minuteretentiontime.
Basedon this,it is reasonableto ex-
pect thatone half of dissolvedorganic
ccwpounds(103ppn) is strippedfrun
water,and the otherhalf remainsin
water.Withoutfurtherexperiments, it
is assunedthatall emulsifiedorganic
~S (634.7ppn) are nmvedby fine
air bubblesto the surfaceof waterand
renmvedfranthe streamby a mechanical
deviceof the flotationunit.
CARBCNADSORPTION
Waterand air caningout the air flota-
tion w‘ t are treatedwith activa&d
carbon,as shownin Figure3. After
treatments, air is ventedto the atm-
sphereand water is dischargedto the
ocean.
Sincethe flarenear a producingoil
platformis not allowed,not for a
senice cunpanyanyway,an activated
carbonadsorptionunit is neededto
recovertheseoryanicccmpoundsstrip-
ped off frunwater.&u# on the ad-
sorbability of benzene,which is 0.080
pounds (87.9 kg) per hourof activated
carbonis needed.
 #

RmEmATIcN a? lm ~ OCEANFUIOR
4 AIUXNDCMTSMXE PIlAml?4SrNTllEGULF OF A’4EXICXI SPE 25157

intercontaining103 ppl organicCaw —.

poundsal-n-~~e
treatmmt. If granularactivatedcar- 1] Menzie,C.A,, “TheEnvironmental
bon (GAC),with Fmundlich iso InyM2ationsof OffshoreOil and
constantsK = 730 (pg/g)(pg/1)P n and us Activities,” Environ.
Sci.Tech.
,
n = 0.61,is used,the optim.an design 16, M. 8 (1982),pp 454A-472A.
istouse tm parallelsetsofcarbcm
cells.Each set has * cabon cells 2] Hileman,B., “OffshoreOil Drilling,
”
mnnectd in series.All fourcarbon Environ.
Sci.Tech.,15, No. 11 (1981)
cellsare identical.If the service ~. 1259-1263.
- of carbonis 726 Imurs,influent
and effluentconcentrations are, res- [31Nesbit.t,L.E. and J.A. &UldfXS,
pectively,100 pgnland 5 ppn, plysical “Drilling FluidDispsal,” JPT,
dimensionsof each carbonbed are 6.53 m. 1981,~. 2377-2381.
feet (1.99m) lmg and 6.51f=t (1.98
m) in diameter. [4]Fang,C.S. and S.A. Smith,Jr.,
“Cleaningof the OceanFloorNear
‘Itle
cost of thiswatertreatlmxlt
, OffshorePlatformsin the Gulf
inchding filtrationd adsorption Cbast,“ En- -SS (Vol.
6,
but excltiingflotation,is $5.85per Nc. 1), March 1986,p. 37-39.
1000gallons(3785liters)of water,
basedcm 5 year semice lifeand 3000 [51Gray,G.R., H.C.H.~ley, Imposi-
knlrsper year operation. tionand ~ ‘esof Oil *11
DrillingFluids,4th ed., Gulf
Spentactivatd carboncan be bxought (1980)
.
back to an onlaxdregeneraticm facil-
ity ~ ~~ tin for ~c [6]Eckenfelder,Jr.,W .W.,Principles
The regenerationof spentactivated of WaterQuality Managemrlt
, CBN
carbonis a very inymtant factorin Pub.co., Eoston,M (1980).
thisprocess.A aarbn regenerator
usingelectricalresistancehaters [7] Seidell,A., Sohbility of Organic
is reportedti be able to regenerate -~, 3ti ed., vo~. 11,
spentcaxtxmat $0.06per @ (1984) Van Nostrand(1941) .
wi&d ,~ 4% carbonloss [9].
{81(hlWi3y,
R.A. and R.D. ROW,
,Handkmok
of Industrial Waste

A feasibility st@y was oonductedwith -V” ‘Str”d ‘“”d

m experimentalWorkr scm field
data,and ~ ccmqnltercalculations [9]ChemicalEngineerir@,
i’eb.6, 1984,
usingthe literature data in the pub- p. 35,
lic danai.n.It ccmckied that a bstter
cleaningpxucesscan be develo@ with
air flotationand carbonadsorption
technologies. & cost is on the high
side,but the decisionmay not entirely
_ On the financialaspect.The
st@y suggeststhat it is Wrthwhile
to coduct a pilot-plant studyto
gatherKOre firmengineering and eco-
ncxnicdata for the designof a full-
scde facility.

64
 mad Table 2 Arumtics l!burdin Waber
Table 1 ?araffi.ns k Ua=

Paraff&ls RJurd. SAability

\
Annlati.cs —— Foink Volubility

~ Cfi 158.5 ~ 1750 p

Heptxm2(c+ 12.0 ~ Sogpll
ml- (X3 7.8 546 p
&tare (C*] 38.6 14

Wmarm2 (Ca) 2.7 =0 b

.
irmduble 0 = 0.8669
9.0 (20”C)
0.8 in.Xyl.ene 6.6 161

~.8 Q-xyleme 7.5 161

= o
1.9 Pmpyl-~ 10.2
C9%2
9.4 b
hlsolubk?
4.6 I
M!?sitylene 1.8
6.4
Butyl—Beuem2 0.8
38.2
Hexyl—Benzene 0.6
17.5
wtyl+emene 3.8
25.6
DeJsyl—Bfmzene 22.4
96.0

54.5

66.7

93.5

150.0

1.2

0.7
 SPE25157 *
Separationand
StorageFac.!.lity
on Barge

-’”
300 gpm Water
with CoarseSolids,
Sand,and Silt

Figure1 Bargewith Separation

Facility

waterand Solids
frcmOceanFloor
— Desander

S-hale
Shaker

Waterand
f Silt.

COal%3e
Solids
I I
1t Discharge

$mdge Trm.k SettlingTank

Figure2 Mechanical Separation on Barge

66
300 gpllwater ad solids
FranWan Floor
Air

I ShaleShaker

w
F&may
Filter
841 ~
* ‘1”

barse *lids
W(kean

Figure 3 KbiifiedClean@ ProcessW CEean

TreatedWata

2000
Benzene+latersolution:
1000

E
●
500

i! 200
Air Flow

10
o 20 40 60
Time of Air Strimi.ng,
MirI,

Figure4 Air Stri@rq in Batch I@?ration