Revista de biorremediación y biodegradación

Abstracto

Oil Recovery From Fuel Oil Storage Tank Sludge Using Biosurfactants

Tânia M. S. Lima, Andréia F. Fonseca, Bruna A. Leão, Ann H. Mounteer, Marcos R. Tótola and Arnaldo C. Borges

The petroleum industry generates large amounts of solid and semisolid wastes known as oily sludges. The composition of oily sludge varies due to the large diversity in the quality of crude oils, differences in the processes used for oil–water separation, leakages during industrial processes, and also mixing with the existing oily sludge. Usually, the oily sludge contains water, sand, oils, grease, organic compounds, chemical elements, and metals. Those sludges can be generated in several steps of the petroleum production and refining, such as in oil/water separation steps and in the bottom of tanks. The accumulation of oily residues in petroleum industry poses a serious environmental problem. The purpose of this work was evaluate an alternative process to removal of oily sludges through the use of biosurfactants to reduce the viscosity and promote formation of oil/water emulsions making sludge pumping easier and permitting crude oil recovery after breaking the emulsion. Five bacterial isolates were selected for their biosurfactant production potential after screening microorganisms recovered from oil-contaminated sites. Supernatants obtained from autoclave cell suspensions (hereby referred to as autoclaved-supernatant) were mixed with oily sludge collected from fuel oil storage tanks to a final concentration of 0.01%, in order to separate the oil from the inert material. The process proved to be highly efficient for oil recovery, and resulted in up to 95% reduction in sludge volume. The use of cell-free supernatant medium obtained from biosurfactant-producing bacterial strains to treat oily sludges may be an economically and environmentally viable technology, considering the small volume of microbial culture required for the treatment.