Chemical Oxidation Lessons Learned

08/14/2008

Jim Higinbotham and Payal Shah of ExxonMobil worked with Denise Good, Mark Lankford, and Chuck Whisman of GES to perform a thorough review of chemical oxidation work performed at ExxonMobil sites by GES and others.

The goals of the evaluation were to determine what trends and lessons learned could be derived from evaluating 19 ExxonMobil sites where at least three separate short-term chemical oxidation events were performed (18 of the 19 sites evaluated were GES remediation projects that utilized HypeAir®). Since the 19 sites evaluated included all known ExxonMobil sites where at least three short-term chemical oxidation events were performed, the study was not based solely on successful case studies.

HypeAir is one of GES’ patented Max-Ox® chemical oxidation techniques, which uses short-term hydrogen peroxide injection in combination with ozone, oxygen, and air for rapid site remediation. Typically injection events are conducted 2-4 days at a time and at least 30 days apart. Most of the sites require between three and eight total injection events, and typical remediation costs for all injection events range from $30,000 to $120,000. With the rising costs for new remediation systems, (equipment capital costs alone may be greater than $120,000) and the risk with full-scale systems having air/water permit exceedances/violations, utilizing a short-term remediation technology that can cost-effectively obtain site closure is a very attractive option. Historically, short-term remediation technologies (vac-trucks, bioremediation, oxygen injection and oxygen-release compounds, internal combustible engines) have been limited in their ability to aggressively remediate contaminant mass. HypeAir has also been widely used as a mechanism to turn off full-scale remediation systems earlier than anticipated, so that the short-term chemical oxidation process can be used to polish the site to closure instead of years of continued system operation.

While our analysis is preliminary, we are very pleasantly surprised with the initial results. We intend to continue to assess the findings of additional sites which utilized short-term chemical oxidation so that we can pass on additional lessons learned and guidance.

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