In-situ Treatment Cell in Pacaya SamiriaNational Reserve, Yanayacu, Loretos, Peru

First In-situ Treatment of a lagoon in the Amazons

In-situ multi-matrix treatment of a 25 year old weathered crude oil spill by REDOX without affecting the sensitive Amazonian Ecosystem.

Simultaneous treatment of surface weathered crude floating on surface water, treatment of water column of contact waters with TPH and 5 meters of

impacted sediment with crude oil. Three different matrices treated simultaneously by one application methodology and one technology.

View of the In-situ Treatment Cell

Start of the pilot project, injection of the ECOSAFE® EMS treatment solution by injection wells.

After injection and saturation of the enclosed treatment cell by the ECOSAFE EMS solution, aeration by compressed air adding Dissolved Oxygen for the REDOX reaction and mechanical mixing to help desorb the impacted sediment with crude oil. Crude oil desorbs and start accumulating of the surface of the treatment cell.

Notice the high efficiency of the desorption process by the ECOSAFE EMS technology on the impacted sediment in the bottom of the lagoon surfacing to the top of the lagoon in an unique inter-phase. Crude oil is no longer a separate matrix, its an homogeneous foam like emulsion suspension. It’s a soluble homogeneous colloidal suspension that when agitated recombines with the water matrix.

Notice the homogeneous water soluble inter-phase of the desorbed crude oil. See the foam like colloidal surface suspension floating on the top of the lagoon. First stage of the technology mechanism. Desorption from the sediment matrix to the water phase by the crude oil. Once in the water phase the REDOX reaction starts changing the chemical properties, geo-physical properties, coating properties, toxicity of the targeted organic degrading the crude oil down to innocuous constituents. Notice the fine foam inter-pahse.

Closer look of the foam inter-phase, it is no longer crude oil as you normally can see floating on water. It’s a micro-bubble colloidal water phase suspension.

Notice the sheen surfacing on top of the lagoon, its no longer pure organic phase of crude surfacing, once its desorbed from the sediment, the REDOX reaction and chemical properties change of the crude oil can be seen by the sheen that is appearing from the air injection wells. Also notice that once the equilibrium between the desorption process and degradation process is achieved the sheen appears and the bubble size change. This is the optimum effect that makes this technology so efficient.

Crude oil starts desorbing from the sediment in the bottom of the lagoon, below 2 meters of water column, surfacing to the top of the water column in a unique interphase, notice crude oil loosing its physical and geochemical properties becoming a bubble foam like interphase that doesn’t recombine back to the crude oil physical properties. Its an homogenous foam like interphase.

View of the treatment process, one side of the lagoon is being treated with aeration helping desorb the crude oil, adding Dissolved Oxygen for the REDOX reaction , helping in the mixing for homogenization purposes and on the other side desorbed crude oil inter-phase is ready for surface treatment by application of the ECOSAFE treatment solution in order to accelerate the REDOX degradation in order to maintain an equilibrium between desorption and degradation to avoid high concentrations of desorbed crude on top of thelagoon. Part of our proprietary knowledge of the technology application. There are many factors that can influence the efficiency of the technology.

Color change in the water due to treatment events.

Surface treatment of the foam like inter-phase on the lagoon by the ECOSAFE treatment solution accelerating the REDOX reaction and degradation of the unique inter-phase of the

targeted organic. Third stage of treatment in order to finish one stage of desorption process.

Surface treatment of the floating inter-phase. Notice the reduction in inter-phase concentration that was floating in the lagoon. In this third stage we treat the whole treatment cell degrading the desorbed organics in order to start another injection application, desorption and further treatment of the sediment in the lagoon.

See the appearance change of the inter-phase foam like suspension after surface treatment. Notice the different colors in the now degraded foam.

From a dark foam like micro-emulsion inter-phase to a clear clean foam. Indication of the degradation of the crude oil. One visual characteristic that helps us monitor the treatment without any laboratory analysis.

Notice clean debris that was impacted with crude oil in the bottom of the lagoon surfacing clean to the surface. The composition of the sediment column in the lagoon was comprised of sediment, roots, vegetation impacted with crude oil. Pockets of pure crude oil, pockets of water, pockets of organic materials in decay and pockets of gases (methane). All keep together by the agglutination effect of the crude oil. Vegetation piles up every year by the dry and rainy season.

Clean debris surfacing on the Lagoon. Notice even the small debris clean, this debris usually act as absorbent materials and see them free of oil on the surface.

Notice the clean surface of the lagoon after surface treatment, See the reflection of the clouds on the surface. You can still notice some foam like inter-phase at the upper part of the photo.

After more surface treatment the same day notice how clear the surface water is.

Notice clean water on the surface, sediment, wood debris, leaves, roots in suspension without contamination.

See here the finer sediment particles like clay surfacing when agitated and disturbed by a 4x4 to the bottom of the lagoon. Indication that the finer particles that are the most conductive to adhere to the oil are free of oil and in a colloidal suspension. If they had oil they would clump up and wouldn’t float freely.

Notice an unexpected event that really shows how well the technology degrades the crude oil. Solution of the treatment cell leached out and started cleaning around the treatment cell. See the contrast between the presence of solution and the oil that the solution is not in contact with. See natural bacterial growth that is present where the solution is.

More evidence of the effect of the leached out solution to the surroundings of the treatment cell.

More evidence of treatment solution that leached out of the treatment cell cleaning and degrading oil, impacted vegetation and soil surrounded by the treatment solution, See where the solution is in contact there is no oil. Also see the green algae growth. Where the solution is not present there is contamination.

Lagoon sediment composition.