Sorbents and Biopreparations in the Modern Industry

Every year in our country the relevance of environmental solutions for the localization and elimination of pollution by oil products, acids, alkalis and other dangerous liquids is growing. There are several reasons for this: the wear of communications, the human factor, technological and natural emergencies. In this regard, there is a tightening of environmental regulations, fines are increasing. The policy to protect the environment of most enterprises is changing. It requires the introduction of modern environmental technologies.

Currently, in domestic and foreign practice, more and more attention is paid not to individual technical means, but to effective, mobile, convenient for use complexes based on sorbents collecting funds in the form of booms, mats, pillows, napkins and other non-woven materials, biological preparations . Such complexes, as a rule, are formed in accordance with the requirements of the customer, based on his needs. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that they can be formed under the spillage of any dangerous liquid (oil products, any other organic liquids, acids, alkalis, mercury, etc.) in a water body or soil of all kinds.

By themselves, the components of these complexes are modern tools that have the ability to absorb, sorb, decompose a dangerous liquid spilled on the water surface, soil or contained in sewage, storm water. They can be purchased and, if necessary, applied individually.

Sorbents. Today, there is no need to talk in detail about what this is and what the mechanisms of action of these physicochemical means of pollution control are: any specialist who in practice has to deal with at least the probability of spills of liquids is familiar with these means. It is known that they differ in origin, dispersity, the nature of the absorption process, and the nature of wetting with water. In practice, inorganic and organic sorbents having both natural and synthetic origin are used. Their main property, which should be taken into consideration when selecting, is the sorption capacity, which is defined as the amount of spilled liquid absorbed by a sorbent unit. In addition, as criteria you can consider such properties as harmlessness, buoyancy, laborious application and, of course, cost. Of great importance in the selection is their selective ability, i.e. Which liquids they can absorb: the more they are universal, the better. It is necessary to pay attention to the following questions: is it possible to regenerate the spent sorbent and reuse it, how it can be disposed of or destroyed and how much the process is environmentally safe (some waste sorbents of natural origin can be absolutely harmlessly left at the site of the spill).

Sorbents can be used as an individual (scatter on the surface of spilled liquids), and used for downloads in special devices (for example, in oil traps, filters, collecting pillows, mats, booms, etc.).

As an example, natural sorbents based on mineral substances - perlite, expanded clay, vermiculite, expanded graphites, and also on the plant basis - pine bark, sphagnum moss, peat, etc. can be cited as an example.

Also, synthetic materials such as polyvinyl chloride, nylon, synthetic latexes, rubbers and rubbers, polypropylene are used as sorbents. It is the sorption properties of some synthetic materials that have become the basis for the manufacture of sorption pads, mats, booms, napkins, tapes, and the like, convenient for spill containment and collection of spilled liquids.

Biopreparations. It is known that in nature microorganisms are widely spread, capable of decomposing organic compounds to carbon dioxide and water and purifying natural objects. Such microorganisms-destructors are used today to eliminate the pollution of water bodies and soils. This method assumes an increase in microbial activity in the contamination zone, which can be achieved by creating optimal conditions. For example, if we are talking about soil, we should maintain the optimum levels of its temperature, humidity, aeration, acidity, nutrient supply - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.

Increasingly important is the new method of substantially accelerating the decomposition of organic substances (oil products, fats, oils, phenol, benzene, alcohols, etc.) by introducing special biodestructors. In recent years, this method is estimated as the most promising due to efficiency, low cost, ease of use. Today, a fund of microorganisms has been formed for the production of biologics intended for the purification of natural objects from organic pollutants. Criteria for their choice are the ability to destroy a wide range of organic substances, the preservation of microorganism viability during storage, high activity, the ability to grow in natural conditions, non-pathogenicity.

The greatest effectiveness of biodegradation of organic pollutants is achieved today by the simultaneous use of sorbents and microorganisms. To this end, strains of bacteria-destructors are immobilized on the sorbent. The application of this method makes it possible to significantly improve the degree and rate of collection and degradation of organic pollutants. Some natural sorbents in their composition already initially have biocomponents, capable of decomposing, for example, oil products. An example is sorbents from sphagnum moss containing humic acids in their structure, which activate the activity of oil-oxidizing bacteria of the local biocenosis. Their feature is the possibility of using and at low temperatures. The advantage of such biosorbents is that they are environmentally and fireproof, they can be left at the site of treatment of the spill in full confidence that they will cope with the liquid absorbed by the moss.