Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 11
By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend:
The Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences has developed an innovative method for cleaning contaminated soils around oil and gas fields, Head of the Institute's Geology and Geochemistry of Ore Deposits Department Chingiz Gashgay told Trend Sept. 11.
This is the so-called ion pump installation, which allows to separate chemical components from each other by creating an electric field in the solution, according to Gashgay.
"Positive ions move to cathodes and negative ions to anodes. They move at different speeds, due to which each element is intercepted at different stages separately. This method can be applied at deposits, which will prevent environmental pollution," Gashgay said.
Presently, according to Gashgay, numerous chemical methods are used around the world to clean contaminated soils, e.g sedimentation, crystallization, evaporation etc.
"All these processes require big investments, which makes their application unprofitable if the deposit is not rich, not easily extractable and not on the surface. There are a lot of deposits in Azerbaijan, especially small ones. Therefore, a very cheap environmentally friendly system for cleaning contaminated soils is needed, which can be achieved by using an ion pump. However, our method requires funding and for the time being we are still looking for an investor," Gashgay said.
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