Bio-Remediation of Hydrocarbons on Inactive Ships

The Navy is seeking a means of removing hydrocarbons from inactive ships prior to ship dismantling or sinking as an artificial reef. Traditional means of separation of oil from aqueous solutions are unreliable in processing emulsified oils and organic chemicals. Filtration, chemical flocculation, and ceramic membranes simply transfer the contaminated waste to one mediumto another. Therefore, a biomechanical separator is best suited to mechanically separate the majority of the phase separated oil from water and then treat the remaining waste with a novel biological treatment system designed to consume the remaining hydrocarbons, and convert them to harmless byproducts. The Phase I program will develop a biological/mechanical separator that will be capable of removing free-phase oil and consuming emulsified oil in wash water to concentrations of 5 ppm or lower. This proposed system will be portable and usable in confined shipboard spaces.