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Breakthrough by OIL in reducing water pollution

By Bureau

DIBRUGARH, Jan 9 - The Research and Development Department of the Oil India Limited (OIL), in its Duliajan field headquarters, has achieved a major success in its initiative for improvement of water quality in the �drilling effluent pits� at a location at Amgurigaon in Dibrugarh district.

The first of its kind �Pilot Scale Bio-Remediation� initiative, spearheaded by its newly established Biotechnology Section (Petroleum Biotechnology Centre (�Jaivalaya�) started in the month of August 2015 with an objective of lowering the oil content in drilling effluent pits to less than 10 ppm within a time frame of six months.

The technology used in the pilot scale study involves augmentation of the rate of biodegradation of floating oil in the pits with the help of microorganisms (bacteria), which are naturally occurring in the environment, along with incorporation of bacterial species capable of rapid degradation of the oil contaminants.

This is for the first time that such an integrated approach of bio-remediating oil contamination in water bodies (effluent pits) has been tried out in the Oil India Limited.

Measurement of the oil content in effluent water, using internationally accepted standard protocols and advanced Gas Chromatographic analysis of the various fractions of crude oil, corroborates to the success of the integrated in-situ bio-remediation/bio-augmentation technology used in the project.

The oil content has been brought down to a level of 10 ppm from original level of 2,00,000 ppm.

This has made the environment of the pits conducive for the growth of algae and associated aquatic flora and fauna.

Results obtained from bio-assay for determining the toxicity of the treated effluent (water) from the pits using the Fish Survivability Test, have been found to conform to the Standards for Discharge of Environmental Pollutants (The Environment Protection Rules, 1986) of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India, after implementation of the bio-remediation.

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