Investigation on the Periodic Dispersion of TPH in Stagnant Water Environment

OZIOKO Fabian Chidiebere; OKIRIE Faith Uchendu

Abstract

An investigation was carried out on the dispersion of crude oil in stagnant water environment and studied experimentally using relevant mathematical models. Precisely two tanks of equal capacity were filled to about 1.5m3 volumes of fresh water and salt water respectively. Also, we considered TPH diffusion in the stagnant water environment which was studied using Developed Dispersion and Degradation Model incorporated with first order degradation rate as well as the Monod equation. The concentration of the Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon present in the contaminated salt and fresh water media were all subjected into analysis based on the depth of the tanks at different intervals of approximately 25cm from water surface. As part of the experiment, once in every two weeks, crude oil samples were introduced into the tank containing the collected water samples in order to ensure there were contamination. The samples of waters collected from the sample collection points were analysed with the use of Gas Chromatography (GC), which done also to be able to determine the concentration of TPH dispersed into the contaminated water media. Finally, the level of physicochemical parameters in the water media after crude oil pollution and the slow rate of TPH reduction over the investigation period implied that it will take a longer time for TPH to degrade under natural attenuation, but using the identified bacteria via bioargumentation technique could accelerate the TPH degradation