Efficacy of a polymeric medium to absorb hydrocarbons from wastewaters in a storm water drainage system

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Discharge of harmful contaminants into the Canadian environment can have long-term deleterious impacts on the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem. Mitigating the release of chemicals to receiving waters is a responsibility of all industries in Canada. ACO Corporation has been manufacturing trench drainage management systems that are used in industry to remove wastewater and is interested in developing a new approach to treating wastewater based on using a 'pillow-type' end-of-the-pipe filtration system prior to discharge into the receiving environment. In this collaborative study, ACO Corporation and the Centre for Oil and Gas Research and Development at the University of Manitoba will simulate wastewater flows through a trench system in the laboratory to test the efficacy of the absorption capacity of a proposed polymeric material to retain hydrocarbons. Using our scale-down approach, we will be able to understand absorption of hydrocarbons at different water flow rates and in the presence of potentially interfering chemicals. The benefit of this research and the expected outcome of the study is that it will enable ACO Corporation to market a product that mitigates the accidentally discharged of industrial compounds into the Canadian aquatic environment.