Factors Affecting Chemical Remediation of Oil Contaminated Water‐Wetted Soil

Abstract

AbstractThe removal of hydrocarbons from contaminated soil is an essential practice because of environmental concerns, and in order to avoid surface and groundwater contamination. There are different methods applied to remove the hydrocarbons from the soil environment. However, the efficiency of soil remediation depends on several factors, such as the penetration depth of the oil into the soil, the type of oil and polluted soil and the age and degree of contamination. Chemical extraction is one of the approaches employed in handling contaminated sites. Many operations in the petroleum exploration, production and transportation have the potential to affect the environment in different degrees. Leakages from pipelines and stranded oil spills are the major sources of oil‐contamination. If hydrocarbon contamination occurs in the soil, the affected portion of soil must be treated to prevent subsequent pollution of groundwater. In this study, a laboratory investigation of factors affecting the chemical extraction using different solvents was conducted to remove the hydrocarbon from artificially contaminated soil samples in presence of water. Moreover, two different types of crude oil were used to study the effect of oil composition on the removal process. The results have identified large variation in the removal efficiency of the applied solvents, depending mainly on the solvent and the type of oil. The main factors affecting the removal process are presented and investigated. In addition, these results were compared with those of dry soil samples.