An In-Situ Soil Washing System for Diesel Fuel Contaminated Soils | ||
| Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology | ||
| Article 7, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 73-81 PDF (232.73 K) | ||
| Authors | ||
| A. M. Liaghat* 1; S. O. Prasher2 | ||
| 1Department of Irrigation and Reclamation, Tehran University, Islamic Republic of Iran. | ||
| 2Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, McGill University, Canada. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The increasing production and use of fossil fuels increase the probability of soil source contamination by oil and petroleum products, and pose a hazard to life. There are over 43,000 chemical contaminated sites in Canada and USA, with 2,200 of them classified as high risk. In the US, over $10 billion are spent annually on the cleanup of contaminated sites. The primary objective of this study was to develop and test an innovative in situ soil washing system that could extract contaminants from the soil, quickly and effectively, without causing any threat to water sources. We proposed the use of an organic solvent in our system that is not only lighter than water but is also immiscible with water. It was in-troduced into the soil profile from below using a system of horizontal, underground per-forated pipes, and collected from the soil surface. Since the solvent was being introduced from the bottom, it “wete” the soil completely and thus removed the contaminant effec-tively. To understand and evaluate the performance of the system for remediation, a pre-liminary experiment was performed using two stainless steel columns (1m long x 0.2m di-ameter) packed with two diesel fuel contaminated soils (fresh and old contamination). The proposed technique is innovative, unique and very fast for the remediation of diesel fuel contaminated soils. It is the first study of its kind employing a subirrigation system for de-livering organic solvents (lighter than water and immiscible in water) for in situ soil wash-ing. Some preliminary applications of the system to diesel fuel contaminated sand soils have proved very promising for both fresh and old contaminated sites. The method could be equally suited for other contaminants also. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Diesel Contamination; In Situ; Soil Washing; solvent | ||
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