• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.690-698
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• 2010

Contamination of groundwater resources by organic chemicals has become an issue of increasing environmental concern. Surfactant-enhanced aquifer remediation (SEAR) is widely recognized as one of the most promising techniques to remediate organic contaminations in-situ. Solutions of surfactant or surfactant with polymer are used to dramatically expedite the process, which in turn, may reduce the treatment time of a site compared to use of water alone. In the design of surfactant-based technologies for remediation of organic contaminated aquifers, it is very important to have a considerable analysis using extensive numerical simulations prior to full-scale implementation. This study investigated the formation and flow of microemulsions during SEAR of organic-contaminated aquifer using the finite difference model UTCHEM, a three-dimensional, multicomponent, multiphase, compositional model. The remediation process variables considered in this study were the sequence of injection fluids, the injection and extraction rate, the concentrations of polymer in surfactant slug and chase water, and the duration of surfactant injection. For each variable, temporal changes in injection and production wells and spatial distributions of relative saturations in the organic phase were compared. Cleanup time and cumulative organic recovery were also quantified. The study would provide useful information to design strategies for the remediation of nonaqueous phase liquid-contaminated aquifers.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.42-52
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• 2011

In this laboratory study, the changes in gas-exposed perchloroethene (PCE) saturation in sand during a PCE removal process were measured using gaseous tracers. The flux of fresh air through a glass column packed with PCEcontaminated, partially water-saturated sand drove the removal of PCE from the column. During the removal of PCE, methane, n-pentane, difluoromethane and chloroform were used as the non-reactive, PCE-partitioning, water-partitioning, and PCE and water-partitioning tracers, respectively. N-pentane was used to detect the PCE fraction exposed to the mobile gas. At water saturation of 0.11, only 65% of the PCE was found to be exposed to the mobile gas prior to the removal of PCE, as calculated from the n-pentane retardation factor. More PCE than that detected by n-pentane was depleted from the column due to volatilization through the aqueous phase. However, the ratio of gas-exposed to total PCE decreased on the removal of PCE, implying gas-exposed PCE was preferentially removed by vaporization. These results suggest that the water-insoluble, PCE-partitioning tracer (n-pentane in this study), along with other tracers, can be used to investigate the changes in fluid (including nonaqueous phase liquid) saturation and the removal mechanism during the remediation process.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2010

The partitioning tracer method is to estimate the residual saturation of nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) in soils by analyzing tracer's retardation induced by the reversible partitioning of tracer with NAPL. This study is to estimate the residual diesel saturation in soils using the partitioning tracer method. Two-dimensional soil box was used to represent the 2-dimensional flows of groundwater and tracer solution in the saturated aquifer, and the soil box was filled with soil and then saturated with water. The residual diesel saturation was induced in saturated soil, and the partitioning tracer method was applied. The results from batch-partitioning experiment indicated that the diesel-water partitioning was linear with respect to tracer's concentration, and the partition coefficient of tracer between diesel and water was measured by their linearities. The groundwater flow in the saturated aquifer was simulated in the 2-dimensional soil box, and the residual diesel contamination was visually identified. The results from the partitioning tracer method with or without diesel in soils confirmed that 4-methyl-2-pentanol, 2-ethyl-1-butanol and 1-hexanol, can be used as a detecting method for diesel contamination. By the accuracies of estimations for diesel contamination using the partitioning tracer method, 2-ethyl-1- butanol showed the highest accuracy with 83%.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.9-24
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• 1997

Surfactant-aided in situ soil flushing has been proposed as an alternative for the expensive and time consuming 'pump and treat' technology in remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater Injected surfactants can effectively solubilize contaminants sorbed to the soil matrix or nonaqueous phase liquids(NAPLs) in residual saturation. The contaminants solubilized in groundwater are recovered and treated further. The theoretical background of the technology and the results of the field operations, mostly in the US. were summarized. In addition, the factors crucial to the successful application of the technology were discussed. Cost analyses and technical limitations in current applications were also discussed. In conclusion, it is likely that in situ surfactant flushing become a viable option for soil remediation in limited cases. Currently, further advances with respect to operation cost and to treatment efficiency are required for more extensive application of the technology. However, the current trends in soil remediation, specially the growing emphasis on risk based corrective action and natural attenuation, will increase the competitiveness of the technology. For example, removal of easily washable contaminants by short term soil flushing followed by long term monitoring and natural attenuation can greatly reduce the operation cost and time.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2023

In this study, column tests using relatively uniform Jumunjin sand media were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of calcium polysulfide (CaS_x, CPS) in removing high concentration of Zn²⁺ in groundwater. The injected CPS solution reacted rapidly with Zn²⁺ in artificial groundwater and effectively reduced Zn²⁺ by more than 99% through metal sulfide precipitation. Since the density (d = 1.27 g/cm³ ) of CPS solution was greater than that of water, CPS solution settled down rapidly while capturing Zn²⁺ and formed stable CPS layer similar to dense nonaqueous phase liquid. Mass balance analysis on Zn²⁺ in CPS solution suggested that CPS solution effectively reacted with Zn²⁺ to form metal sulfide precipitates except for high groundwater seepage velocity of 400 cm/d. With greater groundwater seepage velocity, injected CPS did not completely dissolve at the CPS-water interface, but a partially-misible CPS layer continuously moved and reacted with Zn²⁺+ in the direction of groundwater flow. Since hydraulic conductivity (K_h) decreased slightly due to the generated metal precipitates in the inter-pores of media, injection of CPS solution should be optimized to prevent clogging. As evidenced by both XRF and SEM/EDS results, ZnS precipitates were clearly observed through the reaction between the CPS solution and Zn²⁺. Further study is warranted to evaluate the feasibility of CPS to remove high-concentration heavy metalcontaminated groundwater in complex and heterogeneous media.