TOMSK, October 21. /TASS/. Scientists of the Tomsk State University cleaned up oil-contaminated water body in the Komi Region. By using the Aeroprobe technology, they cut the oil concentration by 21 times, minimizing its presence, the university's press service told TASS.
"The work was carried out on a watercourse with shallow depths, but the work was quite difficult due to the bottom topography and sandy-silty deposits. We have used special equipment, designed and manufactured by the University's Biology Institute. We have used a mobile water-air mixture device, which we are constantly upgrading. It was tested in 2025 in marine conditions at the Kerch fuel oil spill in Anapa, as well as in assessing the Ambarnaya River's sediments' contamination with diesel fuel (the Krasnoyarsk Region)," the institute's Director Danil Vorobyov said.
Cleaned soil was tested at an accredited laboratory, showing a 21-fold decrease in oil. This concentration of hydrocarbons complies with the Komi Region's cleanup level.
"As the work was carried out, we have new ideas how to improve the equipment. That's always a good thing. For example, we have made certain technical and technological improvements after the work in Anapa and Norilsk. In particular, we have made a new mobile design of this flotation device, which can be moved by one person. This is a big advantage for work in hard-to-reach places," the scientist said.
About the cleanup
The scientists worked in the Komi Region's remote area. All the equipment was mobile, where the modules were manually transferred and then assembled at the site. The university's ecologists combined mechanical and biological methods. At the first stage, oil was removed from the water surface using boom barriers. Further on, the air-water mixture, which is the Aeroprobe's basic technology, separated oil from bottom sediments, thus the oil was collected from the water surface without removing the bottom soil.
Additionally, the experts used patented vibration cleaning devices to extract mobile oil from the soil. The sorption booms captured and collected a thin contamination - an oil film on the water surface, and the Aeroprobe Barrier device (also developed by the university scientists) created a continuous bubble barrier along the river section not to allow oil units to move in the water column below the treatment site - the device was bringing the pollution up to the surface, where it was extracted from the water body.
At the second stage, specialists organized biological reclamation using a drug created by the Tomsk State University and the Darwin Group of Companies. This drug - Aborigine-has been successfully used in the Komi Region earlier. Microorganisms decompose oil very actively. The drug was delivered in concentrated form, diluted in the right proportions and sprayed in the coastal area. In the water body, it was used for immobilization on active booms - technology elements used to house oil-destroying microorganisms that successfully performed their task to remove "invisible" oil from the water.
About the Aeroprobe technology
The Aeroprobe technology, created at the Tomsk University's Biology Institute, is Russia's only technology of the kind, for which the national environment watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, has issued a positive environmental assessment and allowed using it throughout the country. The technology allows cleanup operations without excavation or use of chemicals.
In 2021, the university and Lukoil-Komi with the Clean Rivers of Russia project won the Reliable Partner competition. In 2021, they received the Vernadsky National Environmental Award for purification of a watercourse suffering historical pollution. The university's device use has cut hydrocarbons concentration in bottom sediments by 65 times.
The development of technologies to remediate polluted water bodies in Siberia and the Arctic is a key direction of university's strategic project "Global Earth Changes: Climate, Ecology, Quality of Life", supported by the Priority 2030 federal program.