Archives of Environmental Protection

Abstract

Soil contamination with hydrocarbons represents a worldwide problem, especially for oil-rich countries. soil contamination becomes inevitable due to different accidents, aboveground spills, and leakage, threatening the fauna and flora. The purpose of this study is to remediate One-year aged contaminated soil with crude oil (23490 mg/kg) using the fluidization technique in a laboratory-scale column. Free water and surfactant solutions were used for washing at different operating conditions. The efficiency of the method was evaluated by the calculation of the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) removal ratio. Without the addition of surfactant, the cleaning operation was not sufficiently efficient, especially at room temperature where the removal ratio was only about 18%. Raising the liquid temperature leads to some improvement where the TPH removal ratio reached 49% at 50°C. With the use of solutions containing Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) as a surfactant, an important enhancement of removal ratio was noted, along with an important reduction in operating time, washing solution volume, and energy consumption. The use of alternatively working/stopping operation mode contributes to the improvement of efficiency. TPH removal ratios up to 99% were obtained under some favorable conditions. This research shows encouraging results for expanding towards the industrial level with clean and sustainable resources.