CS277544B6 - A method for removing hydrocarbons from water bodies - Google Patents

Abstract

The method of removing hydrocarbons from water bodies, especially from the ocean and watercourse surfaces, consists in spreading soot produced during the oxidative decomposition of hydrocarbons evenly over the surface contaminated with hydrocarbons. The amount of soot used ranges from 20 to 40% by weight of the hydrocarbons being removed.

Description

Prior art

Oil resources are very unevenly distributed. There are areas where the earth's crust is rich in oil, in other areas it is completely absent. In contrast, the consumption of oil, their products and the resulting distribution of refineries is almost evenly around the globe. This disproportion between the occurrence of resources and processing capacities brings with it ever-increasing large-scale transports of this raw material, a large number of which is operated by waterways. Gigantic tankers transport hundreds of thousands of tons of oil across the seas of all oceans.

Conflicts of war and accidents cause large amounts of oil to leak to ocean levels. Oil on the ocean surface thus causes ecological disasters of enormous proportions.

Current technology fights against emerging environmental disasters of this kind in two ways. On the one hand, high-surface-area inorganic sorption materials based on silicates are used, which are able to adsorb hydrocarbons on their surface, on the other hand, various suction devices are used which wipe hydrocarbons with different amounts of water from the water surface and separate hydrocarbons from water in complex plants.

The disadvantage of sorption methods is that most sorption materials have relatively low sorption properties in relation to hydrocarbons on the one hand and at the same time from an industrial point of view most of these sorption materials are disproportionately expensive. Some of these sorbents sink to the seabed after saturation with hydrocarbons, and from an ecological point of view, especially in the long term, the issue of such an ecological catastrophe only shifts to another area and time dimension.

The essence of the invention

The above-mentioned drawbacks are eliminated by the method, the essence of which consists in the fact that the soot formed during the oxidative cleavage of hydrocarbons is evenly distributed over the surface of the contaminated hydrocarbons on the mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. These carbon blacks are formed in the process in an amount of up to 3% by weight of the feedstock. When processing heavy petroleum fractions, they always contain a certain amount of nickel and vanadium, which are transferred to them from petroleum porphirins.

This sorption material has an extraordinary ability to bind hydrocarbons. It is capable of adsorbing four to five times the weight of hydrocarbons per unit of its weight.

The process according to the invention is carried out in such a way that the sorbent spreads evenly over the contaminated level. Within 5 to 10 minutes, the hydrocarbons are completely sorbed into the sorbent, and after the sorption process is completed, the sorbent can be removed from the surface by various mechanical methods. Even a fully saturated sorbent floats on

CS 277544 B6 2 water surface and does not sink to the bottom. After removing the sorbent from the surface, it is completely clean, without stains or hydrocarbon odor. The saturated sorbent can be processed by extraction in refineries to recover the appropriate amount of hydrocarbons for further processing. The second method of disposal is the incineration of saturated sorption material in furnaces.

In the disposal of hydrocarbon stains according to the invention, aircraft or helicopters are preferably used to distribute the sorption material evenly.

The method according to the invention is particularly suitable for the liquidation of ecological accidents, immediately after their occurrence or in the event that the spots approach the coast and where its long-term pollution would be associated, in addition to ecological problems, with large economic losses. Such places are mainly areas of ports, spas and recreational areas, possibly desalination plants.

Examples of embodiments of the invention

The following examples best illustrate the process of the invention.

Example 1

An oil layer weighing 10 kg was artificially formed on the water surface of area 1a. 3 kg of sorbent was layered on the surface. After 10 minutes, the hydrocarbon layer was completely sorbed. Mechanical removal from the water surface was to be carried out in 2 hours, but it did not occur, as the resulting wind collected saturated sorbent at the shore, where it was easily removed using a rake.

Example 2

During the night shift, about 5 t of heating oil leaked from the industrial plant into the stream. A submerged wall was formed on the creek and the accumulating oil was bound to the sorbent. A total of 1.5 t of sorbent was used. The sorbent was gradually metered into the flow. The saturated sorbent was removed from the water surface with a rake. The accident was completely liquidated within 5.5 hours from the start of work, without causing any environmental damage.

Industrial applicability

The method of removing hydrocarbons from water bodies according to the invention is generally applicable in any industrial or traffic accident causing pollution of the water surface by these substances.

Claims (2)

A process for removing hydrocarbons from water bodies, in particular from the levels of oceans and watercourses, characterized in that soot formed by the oxidative cracking of hydrocarbons is evenly distributed over the surface of contaminated hydrocarbons, floating soot saturated hydrocarbons are mechanically removed from the surface. 2. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that the amount of carbon black spread is in the range of 20 to 40% by weight of hydrocarbons.