Quantitative Assessment of LNAPL Retention in Soil Porous Media

Abstract

The presence of hydrocarbon contaminants in the vadose zone is a serious hazard for environment quality. Moreover, there is an urgent need for accurate and reliable knowledge of the hydraulics of hydrocarbon contaminants in porous media to enhance efficiency of NAPLs remediation methods. The objective of this study was to quantitatively assess the hydraulic properties of different porous media with petroleum, kerosene, diesel fuel, and gasoline. The related retention curves were then experimentally obtained. Parameters of the soils retention curves were obtained based on van Genuchten (1980), Brooks-Corey (1964), and Campbell (1974) retention models. The accuracy of models was then assessed by some statistics. The results indicated that, in most cases, air entry value was significantly increased in a petroleum retention curve despite the fact that it was decreased for other NAPLs. The pore size distribution parameters (i.e., n, m, λ, and 1/b) of diesel fuel, kerosene, and gasoline did not change considerably compared to water retention curve. The Leverett (1941) scaling function was adopted to scale soil-fluid retention curves data in two-phase systems. The results indicated that, except for a silty clay medium and petroleum, the Leverett (1941) J-function could scale the LNAPL retention curves based on the water retention curve data.