Iranian Journal of

Background and Objective: Improper landfilling of drilling waste has adverse effects on the environment and human health. This study aims to select suitable landfills for oil and gas drilling waste on Qeshm Island using GIS and AHP.
Materials and Methods: In this study, a weighted map was prepared based on each criterion affecting the site location. In the next step, each of the prepared layers was ranked. Higher rating indicated the importance of each layer while lower values corresponded to their insignificane.
Results: The reasults of this study showed that the distance from population centers (weight 0.222), communication network (roads) (weight 0.169) and surface waters (weight 0.142) are important parameters for landfill siting. The combination of ranked maps and the weights obtained from AHP, divided the landfill area to “completely suitable”, “suitable”, “relatively suitable”, “relatively unsuitable” and “unsuitable”.
Conclusion: Priorities identified in “completely suitable” areas can be the basis for decision-making, and appropriate locations can be on the agenda as next priorities.

Background and Objective: Improper treatment of PAHs in oily drilling cuttings cause adverse effects on the environment. The present study aimed to investigate the efficiency of two bioremediation and fixation methods for PAHs removal from oily drilling cuttings. The efficiency of the two mentioned methods were analyzed and subsequentelythe more effective one was selected using environmental protection approach.
Materials and Methods: The sampling of oily drilling cuttings at the beginning and end of the treating process was performed for the studied methods, according to standard protocols. The amounts of PAHs, are determined by Soxhlet apparatus and gas chromatography-mass spectrometery.
Results: The results showed that the removal efficiency of PAHs from oily drilling cuttings was 97% (440.3 mg/kg) for bioremediation and 78% (354.7 mg/kg) for the fixation method, respectively. The findings showed that the bioremediation method provides the standard requirements for the discharge of PAHs to the environment.
Conclusion: Bioremediation is more effective than the fixation method for removing PAHs compounds and exhibits higher environmental protection performance.