Environmental management of the waste stream with specific reference to marine oil spills

Green, Joe William 2010. Environmental management of the waste stream with specific reference to marine oil spills. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.

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Abstract

Development and expansion of renewable energy generation is one of the highest political and environmental priorities facing today's Governments. Due to increased demand for green technology, the range of options for generating clean energy has expanded. In the case of energy generation from waste sources, it has been further fuelled by increasing pressure for environmentally benign waste disposal systems, burgeoning waste volumes and concerns over secondary pollution from disposed waste. An industry that is integral to energy production, and has a high profile in terms of environmental protection and pollution remediation, is oil spill response. There is scope for expanding the environmental management of the oil spill response industry to incorporate using waste oil from spill incidents as a source of fuel. In order for potential markets (in terms of environmental protection, waste management and energy generation) to be exploited, the necessary range of education and training demands must be established, developed and delivered. Education and training from grass roots to strategic management and Government levels are essential aspects in establishing the knowledge base, compliance, maintaining standards and ongoing development. This thesis examines the integration of the management of the waste stream, energy generation from waste and focuses specifically on the disposal of oil spill waste. The outputs of the research fall into two categories, (i) A series of laboratory and ex-situ field trials to quantify the potential of oil from marine spill incidents as a fuel source, to evaluate the effectiveness of pixel analysis as a mechanism to monitor the efficacy of oil spill response technologies, and to record the percentage recovery of oil and sorbent from the environment as a measure of clean up effectiveness, (ii) To examine the role and impact of education and training initiatives in disseminating scientific, technical and legislative material on bioremediation of marine oil spills. The research demonstrated that there are sufficient levels of carbon present in range of compounds of oils and sorbents from marine oil spill incidents to be utilised as fuel. Pixel analysis was established as an effective technique, oil and sorbent compound dependent, to quantify the extent to which oil had been removed from the environment. Percentage recovery was deemed a value-added data set to analyse the effectiveness of sorbents at recovering oils with varying viscosities. In terms of education and training, feedback from distance learning initiatives specifically developed for the research pathway, including undergraduate modules, and workshops and training courses for professionals and industry was analysed and integrated into the distance learning material on bioremediation. The positive nature of the feedback and subsequent suggestions for expanding the courses from all target audiences, demonstrated their impact, importance and effectiveness within the scope of the environmental management process. These recommendations contributed to the development and design of the bioremediation research.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GC Oceanography G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
ISBN:	9781303218552
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 23:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/55004

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