Final Disposal of the Wastes Associated with the Oil Spill of the Tanker Prestige through its Stabilization with Quicklime and Granite Fines

Abstract

The sinking of the tanker Prestige produced a large oil spill that affected the shores of Spain, Portugal and France. Cleaning operations were performed on the sea and the coasts and the waste recovered was a mélange of fuel, water and a variety of debris. Waste mass balances show that, while the total amount of recovered fuel is close to the amount spilled by the vessel, the total amount of waste is about four times that quantity. In the present study we have focused in the stabilization of the raw oily wastes of the Prestige's oil spill using quicklime and granite sawdust, which is an inert waste of the local dimension stone industry. Given appropriate proportions of quicklime and sawdust, stabilization is feasible and provides a better performance than the only use of quicklime. Leaching tests indicate that the stabilized mixtures can be considered a non-dangerous waste although high quicklime contents may enhance the leachability of given components (Ba, Cr, SO ₄ ) and BTEX. For the purpose of landfill disposal, sawdust-bearing stabilized mixtures have an acceptable geotechnical behavior and no evidence has been found suggesting the eventual destabilization of the mixtures and/or its fluidification/liquation.

Keywords:

• oily waste
• waste inertization
• granite sawdust
• waste management

Acknowledgements

Oily wastes from the Prestige oil spill, quicklime and granite sawdust were kindly provided by SOGARISA, CEDIE, the CALCINOR Group and the Galician Granite Association. This study has been performed within the framework of a contract agreement between the University of A Coruña and Fundación Arao and project BIA2005-07916-C02 of the Spanish Ministry of Education. Comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers are kindly acknowledged.