Neriah, A.B. and A. Paster.
Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 205:96-106(2017)

Application of short-duration pulses of high air pressure to an air sparging system for groundwater remediation was tested in a 2D lab setup to test the hypothesis that this "boxcar" injection mode could enhance remediation efficiency due to the larger zone of influence and enhanced mixing resulting from the pressure pulses. Results confirmed that cyclically applying short-duration pressure pulses could enhance contaminant cleanup. Comparing boxcar to conventional continuous air injection showed up to a 3-fold increase in the single-well radius of influence, dependent on the intensity of the short-duration pressure pulses. Toluene removal efficiency from water was 95% higher than the removal achieved under continuous injection with the same average conditions. Application of boxcar mode in an existing multiwell sparging setup can be accomplished via the installation of an on-off valve in each of the injection wells and a central control system. Turning off some of the wells for a short period results in a stepwise increase in injection pressure in the rest of the wells. See additional information at http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~paster/AsafResearch.html.