A developed technique for measuring water content in oil-contaminated porous media

Abstract

Water content is an important physical parameter for soil, vadose zone, and porous aquifer. Accurate measurement of water content in oil-contaminated porous media is critical for the research on oil pollution process and remediation in soil and groundwater systems. In this study, an improved water content calculation formula for oil-contaminated porous media was proposed based on the theory of oven-drying method, and laboratory experiments were conducted to test the applicability and accuracy of the formula for several types of manually prepared oil-contaminated porous media with different water contents. Furthermore, the measuring method and calculation formula, which can be used to determine the water content of porous media sampled from the oil-contaminated sites, were proposed for the first time in this study based on the improved formula. The experimental results showed that the improved formula was very accurate when used to calculate the water contents of diesel-contaminated sand, gasoline-contaminated mild clay, and engine oil-contaminated sand, indicating that it was widely applicable to oils with different volatile ability as well as porous media with different texture. This study meets the urgent need for accurate determination of water content in oil-contaminated porous media, and it solves the technical problem that the existing water content measuring methods cannot be applied directly in the field study.