Bio-Remediation of Oil contaminated

soil at ONGC, Mehsana Asset- As a

Clean up Project. --- A Case Study
By: Dr.S.S.Patidar, Chief Chemist -HSE
 Sources of Oil Contamination

Oil spillage due to line leakage (Oil flow lines/effluent

lines).

Sludge generation due to adding of chemicals in

effluent water at ETPs (Effluent Treatment Plants).

Tank bottom sludge in oil storage tanks

Oily waste due to periodically cleaning of Heater

Treaters
 Environmental Threats of Oil
Contamination

Environmental Hazards
Oil contaminated Soil looses its Fertility
Effect on eco system and ecological habitat
Physical and chemical alteration of natural habitats
such as when oil is incorporated into sediments
Lethal or sub-lethal toxic effects on the marine life
 Objective of the Project

•Environment Protection

•Social Responsibility

•Stringent Environment Norms

•In all- adhere to QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety and

Environment) Policy based on ISO-14001, ISO- 9001
& OHSAS-18001 management system.
 Conventional methods for remediation of
Oil Contamination

 Land filling / Incineration / Air Spurging

 Natural Remediation (like evaporation of VOCs, auto

oxidation, and photo oxidation, etc.)
 Surfactants

 Chemical dissociation, dumping in injection wells,

etc.
 Land farming
 What is Bioremediation ?

• Bioremediation is a process that uses naturally

occurring microorganisms for remediation of
harmful substances to nontoxic compounds.

• End product of bioremediation is CO2, water & cell

biomass which can be used as a good fertilizer,
hence Environment Friendly.
 Comparison with other methods
Parameters Techniques for disposal

Conventional methods Bioremediation

technique
Efficiency Containment of toxic wastes Complete removal of toxic
to some extent, complete waste is possible.
removal is not possible.

Applicability Application is limited. In-situ Application is universal (can often

application is not possible, subject treat water, soil, sludge etc). In-
to availability of land and situ application is possible and
machinery. In some cases the land requirement is minimal. The
process is not easy to handle. process is easy to handle.

Liability
Present Eliminated

Land requirement Separate land is required for Treatment can be done in-
the treatment. situ, hence separate land
requirement is not there.

Cont..
Parameters Techniques for disposal

Conventional Bioremediation
methods technique
Environment Not environment friendly. Quite environment
Directly or indirectly friendly method. The end
friendliness
generates secondary product is CO2, water and
pollutant. dead biomass that helps
to regain the fertility of
the contaminated soil.
Water There is always a chance No chance of water
of water pollution. pollution.
Pollution

Air pollution There is always a chance No chance of air

of air pollution. pollution.

Cost High Minimal

Cont..
 Environmental Cost of remediation 
Method
impact (Rs/ton contaminated soil)

Incineration Air pollution 10000 approx

Water/ Land
Surfactants -
pollution

Environment friendly
Bioremediation 2500
(negligible pollution)
 Oilzapper : Microbial consortium developed by TERI
for bioremediation of hydrocarbon contamination
Mechanism of Action
 Methodology Adopted:
•Joint measurement of the site having oil soaked soil.
•Site preparation through leveling, removal of stones,
debris and other non biodegradable .
•Zero day sampling for measurement of contaminants
(Initial Petroleum Hydrocarbons).
•Application of Oil zapper, spreading of nutrients, tilling of
site with tractor.
•Tilling of bioremediation site on regular intervals with
tractor.
•Spraying of water on oil contaminated soil for
maintaining the required moisture content.
•Further application of Oil zapper to maintain its population
level at 107 bacterial cells/gram.
•Sampling from randomly selected points on regular
intervals for measuring bioremediation efficiency.
Application of Oil zapper
 Composition of oil contaminated soil
undertaken for bioremediation
Constituents of oil Values at different small pits (%)
contaminated soil
Pit # 1 Pit # 2 Pit # 3 Pit # 4 Pit # 5 Pit # 6 Pit # 7

Steam extractable total Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil
petroleum
hydrocarbon
(TPH)

Solvent extractable 29.44 32.81 34.22 27.98 36.11 28.34 39.21

TPH

Water content 23.79 26.43 22.87 25.56 21.77 29.65 23.84

Residues i.e. other 46.77 40.76 42.91 46.46 42.12 42.01 36.95
organics /
sediment / in
organics

Cont..
 TOTAL PETROLEUM HYDROCARBON (TPH)

Constituents              
of TPH

Alkane 51 49 51 48 47 46 50
fraction

31 31 30 32 32 33 31
Aromatic
fraction
NSO 3 4 4 3 3 4 3
fraction

Asphaltane 15 16 15 17 18 17 16
& resin
fraction
 TPH content and percent biodegradation of
the oil contaminated soil
%
biodegradation
Particulars % TPH  
Before After  
bioremediation bioremediation  

     
Small Pit # 1 29.44 0.94 96.81
Small Pit # 2 32.81 0.98 97.01
Small Pit # 3 34.22 1 97.08
Small Pit # 4 27.98 0.95 96.6
Small Pit # 5 36.11 0.97 97.31
Small Pit # 6 28.34 0.93 96.72
Small Pit # 7 39.21 1.04 97.35
Cont..
 Total petroleum hydrocarbon content before
and after
% T P H in o il c o n ta m in a te d s o il --->

45.00
39.21
40.00
36.11
34.22
35.00 32.81
29.44
30.00 27.98 28.34

25.00

20.00

15.00

10.00

5.00
0.94 0.98 1.00 0.95 0.97 0.93 1.04
0.00
Pit # 1 Pit # 2 Pit # 3 Pit # 4 Pit # 5 Pit # 6 Pit # 7

Before After
 Cultivation of fish in NK Old GGS Pond:

• After seeing the results of the bioremediated soil

at NK Old GGS and the quality of water
accumulated in the bioremediation site, Fish
culture had commenced in Association with
Fisheries department, Government of Gujarat as
per the directive of CMD, ONGC to ensure
Biosafety after bioremediation process and the
growth of fish is a testimony to the process.
Fisheries, 2000 Nos. of Seeds (Katla + Rohu +
Mrigal) were collected from Govt. Fisheries,
Prantij, Himatnagar and released at the pond on
27.10.2008.

Pic 4:Collecting Seeds Prantij

Growth after six month
 Conclusion
• Bio-Remediation process is found to be best technique
to treat the oil contaminated soil in oil industries as a
clean up operation in environment friendly manner &
thus protect the environment.

• This technique is used extensively in ONGC and other

down stream industries i.e. IOCL, HPCL, BPCL etc. and
other part of globe. In ONGC Mehsana almost 75000
tones of oil soaked soil has been treated so far and still
process is going on.