Surfactant selection for enhancing ex situ soil washing

Abstract

Ex situ soil washing is commonly used for treating contaminated soils by separating the most contaminated fraction of the soil for disposal. Surfactant-enhanced soil washing is being considered with increasing frequency to actually achieve soil-contaminant separation. In this research eight anionic and nonionic surfactants were evaluated for the enhanced soil washing of three different soils contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. Enhanced soil washing occurred at surfactant concentrations below and above the CMC indicating the occurrence of both soil rollup and solubilization mechanisms. In certain cases the lower CMC of nonionic surfactants made them attractive candidates while in other cases the lower sorption and higher solubilization potential of select anionic surfactants made them the preferred choice. Surfactant-induced foaming and turbidity are operating considerations that can also impact surfactant selection. When selecting a surfactant for a given soil-contaminants system we thus recommend evaluating both anionic and nonionic surfactants at concentrations below and above their CMC, and we suggest that the methodology we describe in this paper is a good approach for making the final surfactant selection.