Thermal variation of organic fluid properties and impact on thermal remediation feasibility

Abstract

Preliminary evaluations of the feasibility of thermal remediation techniques such as hot water flooding and steam flushing can be conducted with a knowledge of the influence of temperature on organic fluid properties such as interfacial tension, density, viscosity, solubility, vapor pressure, and Henry's constant. Relationships quantifying the effect of these fluid properties on organic removal and empirical equations for predicting the thermal variation of fluid properties are reviewed. Methods for measuring these properties are reviewed and applied to the characterization of perchloroethylene and a transformer oil. The importance of various removal mechanisms associated with thermal remediation is evaluated for these two fluids. Perchloroethylene solubilities increased by approximately 60% as temperature increased from 30°C to 90°C, suggesting that increased solubilization at higher temperatures would not be a significant removal mechanism. Viscosity and density reductions for both NAPLs were small, indicating that hydraulic displacement of NAPL would not be greatly enhanced with hot water or steam flushing. Interfacial tension decreases were not great enough to cause concem about downward remobilization of pools and residual zones of NAPLs. Capillary numbers for hot water flooding decreased for both NAPL, suggesting that hot water flooding would not enhance hydraulic removal of entrapped NAPL.

Identification of abiotic and biotic reductive dechlorination in a chlorinated ethene plume after thermal source remediation by means of isotopic and molecular biology tools

“…More specifically, the aim was to evaluate if a plume detachment occurred due to steam injection as reported by a previous study (Sleep and Ma, 1997), and in addition, if natural degradation was stimulated by the thermal treatment.…”

Effect of temperature on cosolvent flooding for the enhanced solubilization and mobilization of NAPLs in porous media

“…These variations are minor compared to variations in the other fluid properties, unless a change from LNAPL to DNAPL or vice versa occurs. Temperature has a strong influence on flushing solution -such as water and alcohol -and NAPL viscosities (e.g., [60,61]). For an increase in temperature from 20 to 40 • C, the toluene viscosity decreases from 0.59 to 0.47 cp [62].…”

Role of NAPL Thermal Properties in the Effectiveness of Hot Water Flooding

“…Voltesso 35, a LNAPL, is a commercially available insulating oil with moderate temperature dependencies (Sleep and Ma 1997). Experimental data and mathematical relationships for the temperature dependencies of Voltesso 35 hydraulic properties are available in the literature (O'Carroll and Sleep 2007;Sleep and Ma 1997). A coal tar with significant viscosity temperature dependency was selected as the representative DNAPL.…”