Fenton Oxidation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons After Surfactant-Enhanced Soil Washing

Abstract

The feasibility of using a combination of two well-studied technologies - soil washing and Fenton oxidation - to remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from soil and subsequently destroy them in the resulting waste water solution was investigated. Three well-characterized New Jersey soils, representing a wide range of organic carbon content, were artificially contaminated with a mixture of anthracene, phenanthrene, and fluoranthene to simulate PAH-contaminated field soil. Batch laboratory-scale surfactant-enhanced soil washing was used to remove PAH from these soils. Two nonionic octylphenyl ethoxylate-type surfactants - Triton X-100 and Igepal CA-720 - were employed. PAH concentration in wash solution containing 1% surfactant was increased by over an order of magnitude above the level possible with water alone. The resulting solutions were treated with Fenton's reagent (H2O2 plus Fe2+) to destroy PAH in solution. Greater than 99% of PAH parent material was destroyed in the Triton X-100 wash soluti...