Abstract
Surfactants enhanced air sparging actually acts to displace the organic contaminant entrapped in soil pores. In this work, a comparison study was carried out between two air-flushing modes, namely, continuous air flushing and pulsed air flushing, which was conducted to remediate soil contaminated with waste-lubricant oil. Therefore, coarse sand was artificially polluted and mixed well with waste-lubricant oil at different concentrations of 10, 25 and 50 wt% to give the soil an oil blend. Then a laboratory glass column was established and backed with contaminated soil to study the effect of flow rate, pollutant and surfactant concentrations on the removal of waste-lubricant oil from soil. The contaminated soil was washed with pure water and flushed with both air-flushing modes at a pressure of 2 kPa and flow rate of 6 L min−1. After that fixed 300 mL nonionic surfactant solutions (NPEO9.3) at concentrations of 3, 5 and 7 wt%, were poured individually along with air injection at the same pressure and flow rate. The treated soil was washed several times with pure water to eliminate the residual surfactant solutions. It was found that water washing and air injection remove 27 % of oil; however, air injection along with surfactant solutions increased the oil removal efficiency up to 90 %. Moreover, both air-flushing modes succeeded in removing the pollutant with majority to pulsed air mode over continuous mode; therefore, pulsed air flushing was applied for 25 and 50 wt% waste lubricant oils in presence of 3 wt% nonionic surfactant.
Highlights
IntroductionSomasundaran et al [19] investigated the feasibility of using flotation process to remove non-volatile hydrophobic compounds (paraffin oil) from artificially contaminated soil (particle size 0.075–0.83 mm) using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)
Somasundaran et al [19] investigated the feasibility of using flotation process to remove non-volatile hydrophobic compounds from artificially contaminated soil using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)
The results discussed based on application of surfactant enhancing air flushing techniques as the most suitable and cheapest remedial technology for removal of oil polluted soil
Summary
Somasundaran et al [19] investigated the feasibility of using flotation process to remove non-volatile hydrophobic compounds (paraffin oil) from artificially contaminated soil (particle size 0.075–0.83 mm) using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Limited literature has shown that significant amount of petroleum oil may be removed from contaminated soil by flotation process [2, 19, 23, 25]. Air flushing is a cost-effective, time-efficient system for the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), Appl Petrochem Res (2012) 2:51–59 dissolved petroleum hydrocarbon and/or biodegradable contaminants [14, 15, 18]. Two mechanisms suggested for air flushing to reduce the dissolved organic compounds in subsurface area: (1) physical stripping (volatilization) as air moves through the aquifer and (2) aerobic biodegradation of VOCs through increased oxygen supply [7]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
