EK-Fenton for remediation of diesel fuel polluted soil

Abstract

The treatment of diesel contaminated areas by conventional decontamination techniques is difficult due to the low water solubility of diesel fuel. Therefore, new processes to remediate diesel fuel contaminated soil must be developed. In this work, electrokinetic treatment of a soil contaminated with diesel fuel (5,000 ppm) was carried out. Two different approaches were assayed in order to obtain pollutant removal. On the one hand, the use of surfactant (Tween 80) as process fluid during the electrokinetic treatment was assayed to increase desorption and solubility of diesel fuel. Thus, organic pollutant in solution can be transported by the electroosmotic flow. On the other hand, a hybrid technology as the combination of Fenton reaction and electrokinetic remediation (EKFenton) was carried out in order to favour the pollutant in situ degradation. In view of the obtained results, it can be concluded that the diesel fuel polluted soil can be effectively decontaminated by using hybrid electrokinetic treatment EK-Fenton. It was demonstrated that after 30 days of treatment the EK-Fenton process reached the highest diesel fuel removal, around 87%.