Organic emissions from shale oil wastewaters and their implications for air quality

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985 · Environ. Sci. Technol.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/es00140a018· OSTI ID:5714582

Hawthorne, S B; Sievers, R E; Barkley, R M

The emission of organic compounds from shale oil wastewaters used to cool hot, retorted, spent oil shale and for codisposal with retorted shale was investigated. The major classes of compounds emitted are aromatic nitrogen-containing compounds, ketones, phenols, and nitriles, the same as those previously reported to be emitted from wastewaters exposed to air at room temperature. A gas-stripping method was modified to allow the determination of several Henry's law constants simultaneously. Measured values of H for these solutes in the wastewaters (10/sup -4/-10/sup -5/ atm m/sub 3/ mol/sup -1/) generally agreed with values determined for solutes in pure water, indicating that the wastewater matrix has little effect on H. Air samples collected in regions likely to be affected by atmospheric emissions from the shale oil industry had no detectable levels of the major organic species that are emitted from shale oil wastewaters, indicating that these species may be useful in tracing pollutant air masses resulting from shale oil production.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-83ER60121
• OSTI ID: 5714582
• Journal Information: Environ. Sci. Technol.; (United States), Journal Name: Environ. Sci. Technol.; (United States) Vol. 19:10; ISSN ESTHA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR QUALITY
AROMATICS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GASEOUS WASTES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
INDUSTRY
KETONES
LIQUID WASTES
MINERAL OILS
NITRILES
OIL SHALE INDUSTRY
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHENOLS
SHALE OIL
SHALE TAR WATER
WASTE WATER
WASTES
WATER