Treatment of Mercury Contaminated Oil from the Mound Site

Klasson, KT

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

关键词: Thiols;    02 Petroleum;    Surface Area;    Organic Solvents;    Oxides;   

DOI  :  10.2172/885862
RP-ID  :  R00-109113
RP-ID  :  DE-AC05-00OR22725
RP-ID  :  885862

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Over one thousand gallons of tritiated oil, at various contamination levels, are stored in the Main Hill Tritium Facility at the Miamisburg Environmental Management Project (MEMP), commonly referred to as Mound Site. This tritiated oil is to be characterized for hazardous materials and radioactive contamination. Most of the hazardous materials are expected to be in the form of heavy metals, i.e., mercury, silver, lead, chromium, etc, but transuranic materials and PCBs could also be in some oils. Waste oils, found to contain heavy metals as well as being radioactively contaminated, are considered as mixed wastes and are controlled by Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations. The SAMMS (Self-Assembled Mercaptan on Mesoporous Silica) technology was developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for removal and stabilization of RCRA metals (i.e., lead, mercury, cadmium, silver, etc.) and for removal of mercury from organic solvents. The SAMMS material is based on self-assembly of functionalized monolayers on mesoporous oxide surfaces. The unique mesoporous oxide supports provide a high surface area, thereby enhancing the metal-loading capacity. SAMMS material has high flexibility in that it binds with different forms of mercury, including metallic, inorganic, organic, charged, and neutral compounds. The material removes mercury from both organic wastes, such as pump oils, and from aqueous wastes. Mercury-loaded SAMMS not only passes TCLP tests, but also has good long-term durability as a waste form because: (1) the covalent binding between mercury and SAMMS has good resistance in ion-exchange, oxidation, and hydrolysis over a wide pH range and (2) the uniform and small pore size of the mesoporous silica prevents bacteria from solubilizing the bound mercury.