Environmental chemistry of energy residuals. Final report, January 1, 1983-June 30, 1986
This report presents the results from a multidisciplinary study of the environmental chemistry of energy derived materials, primarily from the processing of oil shale. Simulations of contaminant migration from planned oil shale waste disposal sites show that the partitioning of important contaminants can be described by linear distribution functions and imply that empirical adsorption parameters may be valid descriptors of adsorption in complex rock-fluid systems under defined conditions. Porous media properties of retorted oil shale have been measured and used to construct a model of leachate generation and transport. The model accounts for dead space volume in retorted shale and successfully predicts the breakout of tracer substances. Microbiological studies indicate that only with added nutrients will microbial communities contribute to detectable mobilization of arsenic found in natural porous energy residuals. The apparent environmental conditionality of arsenic mobilization by microbiological processes suggests that microbial contributions to trace metal dynamics can be managed to meet specific environmental objectives. Pattern recognition techniques have been applied to the evaluation of contamination from oil shale retorting. The results illustrate that these techniques improve and simplify the presentation of multidimensional data, determine how many parameters are needed to distinguish whether retort operation has affected water quality. In contrast to wastewaters stored in closed systems, exposure of untreated shale oil wastewaters to sufficient amounts of air results in the emission of large quantities of aromatic nitrogen-containing compounds, ketones, nitriles, and phenols.
- Research Organization:
- Colorado Univ., Boulder (USA); Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins (USA). Dept. of Microbiology; Colorado Univ., Denver (USA). Center for Environmental Sciences
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-83ER60121
- OSTI ID:
- 6913086
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/60121-1-Final; ON: DE87001763
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ARSENIC
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
OIL SHALE PROCESSING PLANTS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
OIL SHALES
RETORTING
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
WASTE WATER
SPENT SHALES
LEACHING
WASTE DISPOSAL
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CONTAMINATION
EMISSION
KETONES
LEACHATES
METABOLISM
NITRILES
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PATTERN RECOGNITION
PHENOL
SIMULATION
AROMATICS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
DISPERSIONS
DISSOLUTION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MIXTURES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHENOLS
SEMIMETALS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLUTIONS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
041000* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Environmental Aspects
510200 - Environment
Terrestrial- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
520200 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology