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Figure 1. Deteriorating oil tank farm, near Hobbs, New Mexico, location of the oil waste pit. Typical to older production installations around the world. |
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Figure 2.
Edge of the waste oil pit. The pit would overflow every time it rained. A bird net over the pit was necessary to protect the bird life. The pit had been in use for over 40 years. |
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Figure 3.
Example of the contents of the waste oil pit. The approximate TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbons) of the soil samples were 196,000 ppm. |
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Figure 4.
Example of the cleaned sand that had been processed through the pilot plant. The sand was determined to have less than 4,000 ppm of TRPH (total remaining petroleum hydrocarbons). The determination was made using Freon extraction techniques meeting and exceeding the E.P.A. guidelines. The oil spill cleanup produced toxin free sand. |
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Figure 5.
This is an example of the recovered oil that the pilot plant produced from the in-situ material mined from the pit. Before treatment the API gravity of the oil was an average of 12. The gravity was enhanced due to the removal of the BS&W (bottoms, sediment and water) |