• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.53-63
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• 2010

Pneumatic fracturing is an emerging tool to enhance the remediation efficiency of contaminated unsaturated zones by injecting high pressure air and inducing artificial fracture networks. Pneumatic fracturing is reported to be well suited for the cases where the contaminated unsaturated zone thickness is less than 5 m as many contaminated domestic sites in Korea. Nevertheless, there have been almost no studies carried out on the site-specific efficiency and the optimized design of pneumatic fracturing considering the unsaturated zone characteristics of Korea. In this study, we employ numerical simulations to compare the efficiency of pneumatic fracturing on the aspect of the site remediation and the porosity improvement at several hypothetic unsaturated zones composed of four typical soil types. According to the simulation results, it is found that the zone with fine grains soil such as clay and silt shows better efficiency than the zone composed of coarse grains in terms of air flow and porosity enhancements. The results imply that pneumatic fracturing may improve the efficiency of site reclamation by jointly or independently applied to the many contaminated sites in Korea.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.44-50
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• 2012

A new type of chemical oxidation technology utilizing micro bubble ozone oxidizer and a pneumatic fracturing equipment was developed to enhance field applicability of a traditional chemical oxidation technology using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer for in-situ soil remediation. To find an efficient way to dissolve gaseous ozone into hydrogen peroxide, ozone was injected into water as micro bubble form then dissolved ozone concentration and its duration time were measured compared to those of simple aeration of gaseous ozone. As a result, dissolved ozone concentration in water increased by 31% (1.6 ppm ${\rightarrow}$ 2.1 ppm) and elapsed time for which maximum ozone concentration decreased by half lengthened from 9 min to 33 min. When the developed pneumatic fracturing technology was applied in sandy loam, cracks were developed and grown in soil for 5~30 seconds so that the radius of influence got longer by 71% from 392 cm to 671 cm. The remediation system using the micro bubble ozone oxidizer and the pneumatic fracturing equipment for field application was made and demonstrated its remediation efficiency at petroleum contaminated site. The system showed enhanced remediation capacity than the traditional chemical oxidation technology using hydrogen peroxide with reduced remediation time by about 33%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.468-471
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• 2004

Groundwater development as a means of acquiring subsidiary water resource is very important for the persistent security of water resource. Nowadays, pneumatic fracturing technology which was developed in the advanced countries is applied for increasing pumping rate and eliminating contaminants. From the results of this study, hydraulic aperture and permeability are presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.47-50
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• 2003

We carried out rock pneumatic fracturing test which to increase groundwater yield by injection of highly pressured air in artificially under the surface every four borehole. The result of test performing shows that effect of increasing groundwater was not found in three testhole around igneous and metamorphic formation area, but we can realized that about 15 percent increased wateryield appeared in number P-5 test hole at sedimmentary rock formation.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.189-197
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• 2004

For a long time, groundwater has been used for a substitution for surface water but recently many problems have risen due to shortage of water resources and decrepitude of waterwells. Pneumatic fracturing technique is likely to be an efficient way to solve the problem of tile wells, in which pressure under the ground is applied to increase the amount of ground water. When applied pressure is given artificially to unstabilize the rock stress or to remove substances between fractures the groundwater can inflow. As the air pressure applied on the base rocks is stronger, permeability is getting higher, thus producing much groundwater than ever before. The result of this study show 15% increase of pumping rate in the P-5 well. After pneumatic fracturing pumping rate changed from 26m3/day to 30m3/day, drawdown rate increase from 51.12m to 56.58m, and specific yield also increased from 0.51m3/day to 0.53m3/day.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.151-166
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• 2002

Groundwater development as a means of acquiring subsidiary water resource is very important for the persistent security of water resource. Nowadays, pneumatic fracturing technology which was developed in the advanced countries is applied for increasing pumping rate and eliminating contaminants. This study gives an experimental data to clarify permeability characteristics of the single discontinuity which is newly developed or increased in aperture by the pneumatic fracturing or damage propagation of the natural barrier for the nuclear waste disposal. On the basis of understanding the relationship between permeability and hydraulic aperture the result could apply as one of the basic data for researches concerned with increasing pumping rate and eliminating contaminants. Hydraulic aperture is decreased exponentially with increasing confining pressure and proportioned to permeability in the same confining pressure. Especially, with the increasing aperture permeability of coarse- and medium- grained granite shows the more rapid increasing than that of fine- grained granite.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.127-142
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• 2022

This study explored the fluid transfer characteristics of simultaneous pneumatic blasting, plasma blasting, and vacuum suction (the PPV method), and assessed their effect. Chemical oxidation-an established soil remediation method-was compared as a control. Electrical resistivity surveys found that PPV reduced resistivity by about 1.5-2.5 times compared with the control group, indicating that it increased the diffusion of fluid between the injection and suction wells. Injection and suction tests comparing the injection flow rate, initial suction flow rate time, and suction flow rate showed that the PPV method offered an improvement over the existing method. Slug tests revealed that PPV increased the permeability coefficient by a greater amount than that by the control method. This study qualitatively and quantitatively confirmed that the PPV method clearly improves injection and suction efficiency by accelerating cracks in the ground and improving water permeability compared with the established chemical oxidation method.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2006

In remediation of the contaminated soil, it requires to select at least more than two remediation technologies depending on the fate and transport phenomena through complicated reactions in soil matrix. Therefore, methodologies related to develop the integrated remediation technology were reviewed for agricultural soils contaminated with heavy metals. Pneumatic fracturing is necessary to implement deficiency because soil washing is not effective to remove heavy metals in the subsurface soil. But it needs to evaluate the characteristics such as essential data and factors of designated technology in order to effectively apply them in the site. In the remediation site, the important soil physical and chemical factors to be considered are hydrology, porosity, soil texture and structure, types and concentrations of the contaminants, and fate and its transport properties. However, the integrated technology can be restrictive by advective flux in the area which remediation is highly effective although both soil washing and pneumatic fracturing were applied simultaneously in the site. Therefore, we need to understand flow pathways of the target contaminants in the subsurface soils, that includes kinetic desorption and flux, predictive simulation modeling, and complicated reaction in heterogenous soil.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.85-103
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• 2023

The in-situ remediation of a solidified stratum containing a large amount of fine-texture material like clay or organic matter in contaminated soil faces limitations such as increased remediation cost resulting from decreased purification efficiency. Even if the soil conditions are good, remediation generally requires a long time to complete because of non-uniform soil properties and low permeability. This study assessed the remediation effect and evaluated the field applicability of a methodology that combines pneumatic fracturing, vacuum extraction, and plasma blasting (the PPV method) to improve the limitations facing existing underground remediation methods. For comparison, underground remediation was performed over 80 days using the experimental PPV method and chemical oxidation (the control method). The control group showed no decrease in the degree of contamination due to the poor delivery of the soil remediation agent, whereas the PPV method clearly reduced the degree of contamination during the remediation period. Remediation effect, as assessed by the reduction of the highest TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons) concentration by distance from the injection well, was uncleared in the control group, whereas the PPV method showed a remediation effect of 62.6% within a 1 m radius of the injection well radius, 90.1% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 92.1% within 2.1~3.0 m. When evaluating the remediation efficiency by considering the average rate of TPH concentration reduction by distance from the injection well, the control group was not clear; in contrast, the PPV method showed 53.6% remediation effect within 1 m of the injection well, 82.4% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 68.7% within 2.1~3.0 m. Both ways of considering purification efficiency (based on changes in TPH maximum and average contamination concentration) found the PPV method to increase the remediation effect by 149.0~184.8% compared with the control group; its average increase in remediation effect was ~167%. The time taken to reduce contamination by 80% of the initial concentration was evaluated by deriving a correlation equation through analysis of the TPH concentration: the PPV method could reduce the purification time by 184.4% compared with chemical oxidation. However, the present evaluation of a single site cannot be equally applied to all strata, so additional research is necessary to explore more clearly the proposed method's effect.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.371-388
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• 2023

A stratum with a complex composition and a distributed low-permeability soil layer is difficult to remediate quickly because the soil remediation does not proceed easily. For efficient purification, the permeability should be improved and the soil remediation agent (H₂O₂) should be injected into the contaminated section to make sufficient contact with the TPH (Total petroleum hydrocarbons). This study analyzed a method for crack formation and effective delivery of the soil remediation agent based on pneumatic fracturing, plasma blasting, and vacuum suction (the PPV method) and compared its improvement effect relative to chemical oxidation. A demonstration test confirmed the effective delivery of the soil remediation agent to a site contaminated with TPH. The injection amount and injection time were monitored to calculate the delivery characteristics and the range of influence, and electrical resistivity surveying qualitatively confirmed changes in the underground environment. Permeability tests also evaluated and compared the permeability changes for each method. The amount of soil remediation agent injected was increased by about 4.74 to 7.48 times in the experimental group (PPV method) compared with the control group (chemical oxidation); the PPV method allowed injection rates per unit time (L/min) about 5.00 to 7.54 times quicker than the control method. Electrical resistivity measurements assessed that in the PPV method, the diffusion of H₂O₂2 and other fluids to the surface soil layer reduced the low resistivity change ratio: the horizontal change ratio between the injection well and the extraction well decreased the resistivity by about 1.12 to 2.38 times. Quantitative evaluation of hydraulic conductivity at the end of the test found that the control group had 21.1% of the original hydraulic conductivity and the experimental group retained 81.3% of the initial value, close to the initial permeability coefficient. Calculated radii of influence based on the survey results showed that the results of the PPV method were improved by 220% on average compared with those of the control group.