Treatability Testing for Weathered Hydrocarbons in Soils: Bioremediation, Soil Washing, Chemical Oxidation, and Thermal Desorption

Soils previously treated with landfarming to reduce petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations are often left with a less biodegradable residual fraction that can present challenges for additional treatment. Four possible polishing technologies were tested on the bench scale for weathered hydrocarbons present in fine-grain soils obtained from a previously landfarmed area at an active oil refinery. The technologies included additional bioremediation (both biostimulation and bioaugmentation tested), soil washing, chemical oxidation, and low-temperature thermal desorption. Multiple parameters were tested separately for each technology to identify possible factors that were relevant across technologies. Extractable hydrocarbons comprised only approximately 35% of the organic carbon in the soils, and this component was considerably less affected by biological, surfactant, and oxidant treatment than organic materials that are not quantified by the TEH analysis. Treatment testing of thermal desorption indicated removal of large quantities of extractable hydrocarbons despite the presence of high organic matter. The additional demand to the system would likely result in considerably large timeframes (biological treatment), reagent quantities (soil washing and oxidation), or energy input (thermal desorption) for treatment of target hydrocarbons on a full scale.