What is Hydrocarbon Mitigation?

Understanding the basics

 

The Problem

Hydrocarbons (such as fuel products, crude oil and many petrochemicals) do not like water. They are “immiscible;” that is, they do not mix.

 

 

This is why water cannot be used to control or clean-up
hydrocarbons. In fact, using water on a fuel spill can increase
risk rather than lowering it. 

We will now use “oil” to refer to all fuel, crude oil and petrochemical
products.

 

 

 

 

The Solution

BioSolve Pinkwater is strongly ATTRACTED to BOTH oil and water!
This MUTUAL attraction allows oil and water to mix!

 

 

Surfactant Molecule

Lipophilic (oil loving) Tail            Hydrophilic (water loving) head

 

When a 5% Pinkwater SOLUTION is applied to oil and MIXED WELL, the Pinkwater aggressively GRABS oil droplets and HOLDS them in a stable aqueous (water) solution, called an “emulsion”.

 

 

 

The Benefits

The ability of Pinkwater to put oil in a stable aqueous solution means that customers can use Pinkwater solution to solve (mitigate) a wide range of oil related contamination problems:

Pinkwater solution solves a wide range of oil related contamination problems

 

 

Case Example

In this massive 2012 crude oil spill, BioSolve Pinkwater was successfully used for hydrocarbon mitigation in three ways:

  • suppressing noxious odors that were impacting nearby populations
  • cleaning the internal walls of the depleted oil tank
  • remediating the oil saturated soil surrounding the tank