Abstract
Accidents at oil pipelines, leaks from underground or buried tanks and pipelines, unloading and loading operations on oil loading racks, and other dumping loads are the most dangerous sources of subsurface hydrocarbon pollution. Vertical infiltration of oil and oil products leads to the formation of technogenic deposits and abnormal geochemical zones.
The various microbiological conditions of contaminated soils and lands determine the direction of multi-stage reactions of hydrocarbon transformation and complicate the process of identifying the corresponding geochemical anomalies and the source of its formation.
The aim of this work is to use geochemical modeling approaches to identify and eliminate subsurface oil pollution based on a single automated network of observation and injection wells with forced circulation of suspended mixture of microorganisms.
The total soil microbiological activity, characterized by a gradient in the zone of hydrocarbon contamination distribution and described by the Monod equation, was chosen as a quantitative bioindicator for assessment the degree of contamination. In this case, the data of the model experiment on the biological treatment of the hydrocarbon contamination zone were used to correct the proposed dependencies.
Activated oil destructing microorganisms contribute to the decomposition of hydrocarbon pollution as part of suspended mixture, therefore, their quantity will correlate with the concentration of the pollutant in the medium and can be used for its approximate estimation.
The results of multifactor geochemical modeling using the data of a full-scale experiment allow not only to develop a comprehensive knowledge system about the nature of the subsurface hydrocarbon pollution distribution, but also to adapt the measures for identifying and eliminating this pollution having regard to the areas with the greatest degree of disturbance.
