Coal Agloflotation and Supercritical Wet Oxidation: Novel Remediation Techniques for Ultra-Cleaning of Contaminated Soils

Abstract

Soil contaminated with toxic organic compounds is a serious environmental problem facing the global community. Over time, organic pollutants which are trapped in the soil matrix leach through inadequate holding facilities and migrate deep into the earth, finally making their way to ground water aquifers. Once contaminated, these aquifers carry the toxins through the ecological system, bringing them into the food chain. Current technologies aimed at remediation of contaminated sites are inadequate in that they are site specific and often require secondary remediation. Coal agloflotation and superecritical wet oxidation (SWO) are two methods of soil remediation which can be utilized successfully to decontaminate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contaminated soil. Soil samples obtained from industrial town gas sites, with a total PAH contamination ranging from 2 to 17 mass percent, were remediated to environmentally acceptable standards with an end result of clean soil and usable byproducts from the processes. Hydrocarbon removal efficiencies were better than 95 percent for agloflotation and 99 percent for wet oxidation. A description of the individual processes is given as well as pertinent data to show the success of these two processes as primary and/or secondary treatment for soil remediation. A comparison between both processes is also given.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0304-3894

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 1993 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 1993

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