Beyond oil: Assessing the viability of circular economy approaches for sustainable management of drilling waste contaminated soils in Apsheron Peninsula, Azerbaijan

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Alfraganus University, Tashkent 100190, Uzbekistan

2 Samarkand State University named after Sharaf Rashidov, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

3 Tashkent University of Architecture and Civil Engineering of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan;

4 Tashkent State University of Economics 49, Islam Karimov str., 100066, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

5 Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

6 Tashkent State Medical University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

7 Tashkent State Technical University named after Islam Karimov, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

8 Kokand State Pedagogical Institute, Kokand, Uzbekistan

9 Bukhara State Medical Institute named after Abu Ali ibn Sino, Bukhara, Uzbekistan

10 Urgench State University, Urgench, Uzbekistan

10.22124/cjes.2025.8941

Abstract

The Apsheron Peninsula is faced to a high risk of soil contamination with drilling wastes (up to 28500 mg kg-1 TPH) due to decades of oil drilling. Guided by the circular economy (CE) paradigm, this study evaluated the technical-economic-environmental feasibility of three advanced solutions to the sustainable management of such soils: (i) cutting-edge stabilization/solidification (S/S) with a hybrid binder (cement + GGBS + alkaline activator), (ii) thermal hydrocarbon recovery, and (iii) enhanced bioremediation with a local microbial population. The results showed S/S was effective in reducing hydrocarbon leakage (TCLP) by 98.2% and producing construction materials with a compressive strength of 28.5 MPa at high salinity conditions (EC ~12 dS m-1). Thermal recovery at 320 °C recovered 76.4% of the stored hydrocarbons to a fuel with calorific value of 41.2 MJ kg-1. Bioremediation also achieved 89.7% TPH reduction at 180 days under native salinity. Life cycle assessment (LCA) revealed 48-83% global warming potential saving and life cycle cost analysis (LCC) revealed 39% net present value (NPV) gain in CE solutions compared to the traditional landfill. This study confirms the effectiveness of CE to transform the waste issue into an opportunity for resource recovery according to the current conditions in Apsheron, but the preferable technology choice is dependent upon the initial pollution level and household energy price.

Keywords

References

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Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences
Volume 23, Issue 3
July 2025
Pages 635-642

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