Foam flushing with soil vapor extraction for enhanced treatment of diesel contaminated soils in a one-dimensional column

A limitation of soil vapor extraction (SVE) remediation for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in the unsaturated zone is the inability to remove the less volatile petroleum mixture compounds in diesel fuel. SVE combined with foam flushing may have the potential to enhance dissolution or mobilization of soil sorbed diesel and allow mobilized diesel to move to the SVE extraction well. A nonionic surfactant polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monooleate (TW80) was selected for generating foam, and a procedure to incorporate the oxidant sodium persulfate (SPS) in generating TW80/SPS foam to deliver chemical oxidation, was also studied. Both TW80 and TW80/SPS foams exhibited 96-98% quality under 8-32 mM of TW80 and 10-50 mM of SPS. The addition of SPS in TW80 solution resulted in elevated ionic content and degradation of TW80, which may reduce the foam stability and have minor effects on foam quality. Through analysis of interrelationships among column flushing experimental parameters, it was shown that the foam quality was reduced to 42-47% when foam flushed through a diesel contaminated soil column. Moreover, the results of column flushing tests operated for 12 h indicated that the effectiveness of removal of diesel by different foams followed the order of TW80 foam (53%) > TW80/SPS foam (37%) >N2 gas flow alone (3%). It was shown that foam flushing could be an alternative approach, rather than using N2 gas flow alone (SVE), in enhancing SVE for reducing diesel contamination in the unsaturated zone.

Automated summary

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) alone has limitations in removing less volatile compounds in diesel fuel mixtures in the unsaturated zone. This study showed that combining SVE with foam flushing using TW80/SPS foam could enhance the dissolution or mobilization of sorbed diesel in soil. The effectiveness of diesel removal by different foams was observed to be TW80 foam > TW80/SPS foam > N2 gas flow alone, indicating that foam flushing may be a more effective alternative approach for reducing diesel contamination in the unsaturated zone.