Surfactant Enhanced Aquifer Remediation

Abstract

The use of surfactants to remediate groundwater contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids has been under investigation and field testing since at least the 1980s. Surfactant enhanced aquifer remediation (SEAR) is especially important for dense nonaqueous phase liquids such as chlorinated solvents because they are difficult to remediate and because there are few good alternatives to SEAR to remove these contaminants from groundwater. The technology has continued to improve and recent field demonstrations at superfund sites have shown that under certain conditions very favorable results can be obtained with SEAR. Some of these advances can be attributed to the adaptation of technology developed for surfactant enhanced oil recovery over the past 30 years. The emphasis on phase behavior for screening and evaluating surfactants is especially noteworthy and important. In this chapter, we first briefly review the phase behavior of surfactants when mixed with organic liquids of interest, and then give a detailed example of a study done at the University of Texas to further evaluate surfactant candidates in soil column tests in the laboratory. Introduction The contamination of groundwater by nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) is a cause for concern throughout the world. NAPLs can be classified by their density as those lighter than water (LNAPLs) and denser than water (DNAPLs). NAPLs migrate into aquifers because of gravity and capillary forces and may be trapped in the form of immobile blobs or ganglia or when present in sufficient volume DNAPLs may form pools above aquitards.