Reseña

In the area of efficient and sustainable use of resources GeoAgroEnvironmental, ECOPETROL S.A. Operations Superintendent Huila - Tolima (SOH) and the Surcolombiana University through of CENIGAA Research Center, conducted in 2010 the first phase of the Research and Technological Innovation Project for reuse in activities called charitable of the produced waters.

The research challenge was to find environmentally friendly technology alternative to convert a "residue" of the oil industry into a valuable resource for the implementation of Agro-Environmental recovery initiatives. This contributes to the UN Global Programme to Combat of Arid and adaptation to climate change under a social development scheme, as a result of corporate social responsibility policy of ECOPETROL S.A.

Currently, CENIGAA is developing the second phase of this important initiative, which is aimed to the validation of strategic components through pilot testing of technologies to be implemented in the near future. Immersed in the development of this phase is the generation of technological surveillance reports to determine the state of knowledge of the technology, identify trends and global capabilities, seeking solutions to technological problems and understand the movements of the environment to facilitate a support to the drawees of strategic decisions.

It is a fact that the sludge associated with oil production are potentially a great pollutant to the environment; sludge disposal and heavy metals recovery are among the alternatives to protect the natural resources and get monetary remuneration that compensate the oil sludge treatment.

This technology surveillance report focuses on the issue of sludge associated with the oil production, specifically focused on oil sludge disposal and heavy metals recovery contained in these sludges, collecting information about methods, technologies and project experiences that use this kind of waste as a resource in different regions of the world.