Stabilizing Waste Sediment

The chemical reaction that results in the curing of cement is triggered off by water as a catalyst, so yes, oil mixed with the cement can have an adverse effect upon it because it would repel the water, preventing it from coming into contact with the cement.

Try rinsing your sediments with hot caustic soda to remove the oil, and then rinsing it again with clean water before adding the cement.

Keep us updated on this, will you?

Many thanks for your reply which confirms my suspicions.

Hot caustic soda is not something we're geared up to handle but it may be something the producer of the sediment will need to consider to ultimately render the stuff manageable.

I'll keep you posted.

cheers,

Tim D

First You have to separate oil from the sediment by bubbling the sediment in the desorbsion tank with mix of hot water and air. By overflow you evacuate the seprated oil on the top surface of the water until the oil content of the sediment become to zero. Then you separate the sediment from the water prior to adding cemment to the sediment.

Thanks,

Muchtisar Daeng Putra.

Thank you for your reply.

I think that the desorbtion method you describe is likely to be of interest to the slipway owners as it should be relatively easy to carry out. There is not a great quantity of the sediment, but the process will be continuing as the sediment accumulates in the collection sump and will need to be disposed of every few months.

Thanks again,

Regards,

Tim D.

In my humble opinion, OPC (ordinary portland cement) is a poor choice for a myriad of reasons.

We do this every day on a world wide basis with various sludge sources.

One of the binders that works for many things is MGKPO4 (magnesium potassium phosphate. It is sometimes referred to as Chemically Bonded Phosphate Ceramic. It is a ceramic matrix but happens at ambient and does not require addition of heat. We have proven time and again the effectiveness of this binder by doing a TCLP test. (something that should be done to verify that all chemistry is stable and there is no leachate)

There are several other hydrolytic binders and geopolymers that would possibly work as well.

What I like about the MGKPO4 is that it has the potential to not only encapsulate but also transform the chemistry you have described to an insoluble mass.

If you would like testing results and reports of similar chemistry , email at

tesla-was-right@hotmail.com

Ceramic Cement Research Institue

Many thanks for your reply Tesla

A TCLP is on the programme for this series of tests but as you can imagine, we need to sort out the binding issue first I will contact you for test results.

any update??? teslastones@gmail.com

I've been investigating disposal of lead contaminated sludge for a different project. One type of this sludge does contain oil. In that case the oil is burned off (at lower temperatures) at a cogeneration plant and the resulting powder is mixed with concrete and landfilled at a hazardous waste landfill. The cost is roughly $0.25 per pound. You should be able to contact Waste Management to determine if the process is available near your location.

Many thanks Eric.

I'm impressed with the number of people who've taken the time to suggest methods to deal with this problem. I suspect we may not have the facilities locally to burn off the oil but will check it out.

Cheers,

Tim D

The brittleness could be due to not setting nature of the wash slurry-due to oil sprays from force nozzles as well as algae slime being washed off.

The best thing to look about this reuse is to go for drying of slurry as you have rightly suggested. I would like add an improvement-add alum and a bit of lime as coagulant complexing agent, which can inactivate oil/ algae slime being slippery and lead to better complexing.

It is a simple test, which can be confirmed by trials. just use fabric/ paper filters and hair dryer.