Abstract
Potential reuse of oil-contaminated soils guidance policies are demonstrating ways to reuse these materials in engineering applications. However, the engineering properties of these materials are highly altered after contamination. Alternatively, chemical stabilization treatments can improve oil-contaminated soil properties for its reuse in geotechnical applications. This study investigates the effect of a diesel contamination on a coarse-grained soil and assesses the viability of a lime treatment. Laboratory tests included pH, Atterberg limits, compaction, unconfined compression strength (UCS), California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and tensile strength, RX-diffraction and scanning electron micrographs before and after lime treatment. Tests were performed on natural soil, diesel-contaminated soils (2, 4, 8, 12, and 16% of diesel) and lime treated diesel-contaminated soils (2, 4, 6 and 8% of lime). Diesel drastically changed soil plasticity and strength properties. Lime stabilization of diesel-contaminated soils was efficient to recapture soil natural properties with low lime contents. The influence of oil and lime in soil mechanical properties and mineralogical characteristics was evidenced in this study. The presence of oil drastically altered soil mechanical properties. Crystallization of calcite was present in both natural and oil-contaminated soils treated with lime, increasing particles flocculation. The presence of oil favored dolomite formation. Lime was significate in enhancing oil-contaminated soil mechanical properties, such as UCS, indirect tensile strength and CBR, mainly due to carbonation reactions. Oil-contaminated soil mixtures showed increase in mechanical properties after lime treatment and curing period.
Highlights
Oil-contaminated soils result from leaking underground storage tanks and petroleum wells, or oil spills during transportation, tanker accidents, damaged pipelines, oil drilling processes and surrounding petroleum refineries
The present study aims to evaluate a diesel-contaminated lateritic soil treated with different contents of lime
Effect of diesel‐contamination on soil properties This topic describes the effect of diesel contents on the characteristic properties of the natural coarse-grained soil
Summary
Oil-contaminated soils result from leaking underground storage tanks and petroleum wells, or oil spills during transportation, tanker accidents, damaged pipelines, oil drilling processes and surrounding petroleum refineries. Tuncan et al [14] studied a petroleum-contaminated soil stabilized with 5% cement, 10% fly ash and 20% lime and showed superior strength properties among other contents tested. Shah et al [15] evaluated a fuel oil contaminated clayey soil treated with different stabilization agents in terms of improvements in the geotechnical properties and observed superior results when the soil was treated with a combination of 10% lime, 5% cement and 5% fly ash, which was attributed to dispersion of oil, cation exchange, agglomeration, and pozzolanic reactions. Results showed that curing period of 28 days allowed oil-contaminated soil stabilizes with 1% lime to achieve the strength properties of natural soil. Chen et al [4] evaluated a diesel-contaminated soil treated with cement, showing that different combinations of curing time, diesel and cement content led to different strength increase processes. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron micrographs were used to evaluate soil structure and mineral neoformation
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