Environmental chemistry of energy residuals. Final report, January 1, 1983-June 30, 1986

Technical Report · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

OSTI ID:6913086

Sievers, R E; Klein, D A; Meglen, R R; Ramirez, W F; Runnells, D D

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
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
041000* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Environmental Aspects
510200 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
520200 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
560300 -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AROMATICS
ARSENIC
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CONTAMINATION
DECOMPOSITION
DISPERSIONS
DISSOLUTION
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
KETONES
LEACHATES
LEACHING
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
METABOLISM
MIXTURES
NITRILES
OIL SHALE PROCESSING PLANTS
OIL SHALES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PATTERN RECOGNITION
PHENOL
PHENOLS
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
RETORTING
SEMIMETALS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SIMULATION
SOLUTIONS
SPENT SHALES
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE WATER
WASTES
WATER