Abstract
Radioactive material has been known to be associated with both oil and gas deposits for many years. The presence of NORM at oil production facilities has recently increased in significance as federal and state regulatory agencies lay out more stringent guidelines for dealing with it. It will therefore influence Risk based decision making and the overall economics of oil production. In this proposal, we outline a plan to develop a technique for the dissolution of radioactive scale associated with oil production equipment. More specifically, we intend to design an anaerobic microbiological treatment process that will specifically dissolve radium sulfate which has precipitated on equipment in contact with oil production waters. By consuming sulfate and converting it to sulfide, sulfate reducing microorganisms will draw the relatively insoluble radium sulfate into solution as Ra2+. The radium then in solution could be transferred to another vessel where it will be re-precipitated and concentrated as the sulfate or carbonate salt for eventual disposal. The result will be the removal of radioactive material from large pieces of functional equipment with its transfer to a smaller more easily disposed of and less costly vessel. Because barium is very similar to radium in its specific ligand interactions, barium can be used as a surrogate for radium. However, all studies will be verified with radium salts and naturally occurring radium scale from oil production equipment. We will initially focus on (1) optimizing the microbiological conditions needed for the dissolution of radium scale; (2) development of a microbiological system scaled for the treatment of contaminated tools, casings and vessels; (3) optimization of a chemical treatment system using carbonate or sulfate salts for re-precipitating and concentrating radium out of solution for subsequent disposal. These experiments over the short period will generate the initial results needed to determine the viability and cost as well as design a pilot scale system for the use of microbial treatment in dealing with radium containing scale on metal and plastic surfaces.