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REMOVAL KINETICS OF PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS FROM LOW-PERMEABLE SOIL BY SAND MIXING AND THERMAL ENHANCEMENT OF SOIL VAPOR EXTRACTION
Yu, Y., L. Liu, C. Yang, W. Kang, Z. Yan, Y. Zhu, J. Wang, and H. Zhang.
Chemosphere 236:124319(2019)

Thermally-enhanced remediation of n-alkanes-contaminated silty soil mixed with coarse quartz sands was demonstrated in a 40 cm x 30 cm lab cylindrical tank. The experiment investigated the removal kinetics of semi-volatile n-alkanes (C10, C11, and C13-16) under three pulsed heating operations of SVE. CMG-STARS software was adopted to simulate the dynamics of heat transfer within the soil column. Results indicated a dramatic increase of air permeability of soil and acceleration of heat transfer after the introduction of sand and SVE achieved rapid soil remediation. Gas-phase transfer of n-alkanes mainly occurred when the average soil temperature was ≥100°C. After a 30.8 h run, the average soil concentration of total n-alkanes was reduced by 93.4%, from 3106.5 to 202.4 mg/kg. The residual n-alkanes of C10, C11, C13 and C14 in all collected soil samples were <10 mg/kg. Most of the soil concentration-gradient curves for the n-alkanes tested almost coincided with their isothermal contours. This suggests that thermal drive force has a key impact on contaminant transfer.



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