Influence of Soil Granulometry on Pyrene Desorption in Groundwater Using Surfactants

Abstract

The high hydrophobicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is the main limiting factor for the remediation of soils and aquifers. Surfactants are amphiphilic substances which encourage the transfer of hydrophobic compounds from the solid to the liquid phase. While the interaction between organic matter and surfactants has been widely studied, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the relationship between surfactant efficiency and the granulometry of soil and/or geologic material. In this paper, three non-ionic surfactants (Tween 80, Gold Crew, and BS-400) were used to study the desorption of pyrene, chosen as a representative PAH, in soils with different grain size proportions (1%, 5%, 10%, and 20% of clay and silt) and no organic matter (<0.1%). The best quantity of surfactant to apply is closely related to the proportion of fine materials. Tween 80 gave better maximum desorption than Gold Crew and BS-400 (89%, 40%, and 36%, respectively). As an important proportion of aquifers show fine material above 1%, the effective critical micellar concentration obtained when applying surfactants to this type of geologic materials has to be higher than 150 mg L −1 for Tween 80, and higher than 65 mg L −1 , and 100 mg L −1 for Golf Crew and BS 400, respectively. Furthermore, results indicate that carrying out simple laboratory tests before the use of surfactants on a field scale is necessary to improve the efficiency and minimize the financial and environmental impact of its application.

Precise estimation of dodecylbenzenesulfonate in aqueous solution containing dissolved organic matter extracted from soil using UV‐spectrometry

“…Nowadays, environmental studies have been largely focused on the presence of surfactants in the soil-water system (Cao, Guo, Zhu, Jiang, & Yang, 2008;Rodriguez-Escales, Sayara, Vicent, & Folch, 2012). Among all the anionic surfactants, dodecyl sulphate and dodecylbenzenesulfonate (DBS) are the ingredients of most currently available cleaning agents and other commonly used commercial products (Myers, 2005;Thiele & Nollet, 2007;Texter, 1999;Zoller, 2005).…”

Vulnerability Assessment of Farmland Groundwater Pollution around Traditional Industrial Parks Based on the Improved DRASTIC Model—A Case Study in Shifang City, Sichuan Province, China

“…It obviously affects the amount of recharge that penetrates groundwater and the ability of pollutants to enter the envelope belt vertically. Soil particle size, clay mineral content, organic matter content and water content have a great influence on groundwater vulnerability [44]. The smaller the particles are, the more clay mineral content there is, the higher the organic matter content is, the higher the water content is, and the lower the vulnerability of groundwater is (and vice versa).…”

Micelles as Soil and Water Decontamination Agents

“…Tween 80 was found to yield the highest maximum desorption when compared to BS-400 and Gold Crew (89%, 36%, and 40%, respectively). 20 Hussein and Ismail 21 explored the role of nonionic surfactants for the enhanced degradation of PAHs consisting of anthracene, fluorene, and pyrene. The surfactants TX-100 and Tween 80 were used to investigate the removal of PAHs singly and as a mixture.…”

“…The ideal amount of surfactant to add closely corresponded to the amount of fine materials. Tween 80 was found to yield the highest maximum desorption when compared to BS-400 and Gold Crew (89%, 36%, and 40%, respectively) …”