• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.529-540
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• 2012

Objective: This research was performed to evaluate the state of oil pollution in an area surrounding a railway station that has over 100 years of business history as a railway station in S City, Korea. The amount of polluted soil was estimated, and the target area for remediation was assessed in this study to restore the oil-polluted area. Methods: To accomplish this aim, five observation wells were installed for the sampling of groundwater, and soil was sampled at 33 points. Electric resistance studies and a trench investigation were undertaken to understand the geological conditions of the site, and the groundwater movement in this area was simulated by MODFLOW. Physiochemical analyses were conducted to determine the quality of the groundwater and the current state of oil pollution influenced by that of the soil. Results: The mean level of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in this area was 1,059 mg/kg, and the area for remediation was determined to be 7,610 mg/kg. Levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) were determined to be under the legal standard. Conclusion: In terms of depth, the biggest area polluted by TPH found was between 0 and 1 m from ground level, and the affected area was 5,900 $m^3$. TPHs were not detected in groundwater. Diesel and lubricating oil were the main causes of TPH pollution at this railway station.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2024

Recently, enhanced in situ bioremediation using slow substrate release techniques has been actively researched for managing TCE-contaminated groundwater. This study conducted a lab-scale batch reactor experiment to evaluate the feasibility of natural attenuation for TCE dechlorination using microsized corn-oil droplet (MOD) as an activator considering the following three factors: 1) TCE dechlorination in the presence or absence of MOD; 2) TCE dechlorination in the presence or absence of inactivator of native microbial activity; and 3) MOD concentration effects on TCE dechlorination. Batch reactors were constructed using site groundwater and soil in which Dehalococcoides bacteria were present. Without MOD, TCE was decomposed into dichloroethylene (DCE). However, other by-products of TCE dechlorination were not detected. With MOD, DCE, vinyl chloride (VC), and ethylene (ETH) were sequentially observed. This result confirmed that MOD effectively supplied electrons to complete dechlorination of TCE to ETH. However, when an excess of MOD was provided, it formed unfavorable conditions for anaerobic digestion because dechlorination reaction did not proceed while propionic acid was accumulated after DCE was generated. Therefore, if an appropriate amount of MOD is supplied, MOD can be effectively used as a natural reduction activator to promote biodegradation in an aquifer contaminated by TCE.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.353-359
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• 2013

The objectives of this study were to investigate effectiveness of the Compressed Air Jet (CAJ) System for cleaning up shorelines contaminated with crude oils and to examine effects of the system on total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) removal and microbial community changes before and after remediation of the oil-contaminated shorelines. These data will lead to better understanding of optimized remediation process. About 66% of TPH reduction was observed when the contaminated site was treated with the CAJ System 2, 3, 4, and 5 times. This treatment system was more efficient than the seawater pumping system under similar treatment conditions (by 40%). By the way, little oil degrader communities were observed despite a potential function of the air jet system to stimulate aerobic oil degraders. The apparent low population density of the oil degraders might be as a result of low concentration of TPH as a carbon source and limiting nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. It was proposed that the CAJ System would contribute significantly to removal of residual oils on the shorelines in combination with addition of these limiting nutrients.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.3-11
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• 2002

The objective of this study was to survey the oil contamination around the Mountain Baegun at Uiwang city to obtain the preliminary data for bioremediation. For measuring the oil concentrations and physical properties from soil, we analyzed BTEX. TPH and pH, organic content, water content, pormeability coefficient, gravity, porosity and used the purge & trap method for analyzing BTEX. Using the Accelerated Solvent Extractor, we pretreated the samples and then analyzed TPH using GC-FID as soon as possible. From the analysis results, maximum concentration of TPH was 24.773mg/kg and BTEX was 101.7mg/kg. The results of TPH at the Mountain Baegun were higher than the enforcement standard of soil contamination(Korea) and the BTEX concentrations were also higher than the advisory standard of soil contamination(Korea). From these results, the Mountain Baegun may requires to remedy the oil-contaminated soil. In addition, we performed the field bioremediation test for five weeks at the Mountain Baegun using the microbial additives that were developed by our laboratory. From the results of the field test, we could find the about 95% of the oil was removed from the contaminated soil in five weeks. So we consider that it is the one of the useful solutions to remedy the oil-polluted site.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2000

The effects of operating condition of soil vapor extraction system and the characteristics of site on the remediation of oil contaminated soil were investigated. Thorough investigation showed that the site was contaminated with gasoline leaked from underground storage tank and the maximum concentration of BTEX and TPH were 1,081 ppm and 5,548 ppm respectively. The leaked gasoline were diffused to 6m deep and the area and volume of the polluted soil were assumed to 170$m^2$ and 1,000$\textrm{m}^3$respectively. The site were consisted of three different vertitical layers, the top reclaimed sandy soil between the earth surface and 3~4m deep, middle silty sand between 3~4m and 6m deep, and the bottom bedrock below the 6m deep. The air pemeability of soil was measured to 1.058-1.077$\times$10$^{-6}$ $\textrm{mm}^2$ by vacuum pump tests. The groundwater which level was 3~4m deep was observed in some areas of this site. The soil vapor extraction system which had 7.5 HP vacuum pump and 8 extraction wells was constructed in this site and operated at 8 hrs/day for 100 days. The BTEX was removed with above 90% efficiency where no groundwater and silty sand were observed. On the contrary, the efficiency of BTEX and TPH were dramatically decreased where groundwater and silty sand were observed. The flow rate of soil air induced by soil vapor extraction system was reduced in deeper soil.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.357-364
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• 1997

The objective of this study was to find optimum nonionic surfactants for clean up of soils contaminated by hydrocarbon oils. PIT(phase inversion temperature) measurements in ternary systems containing pure hydrocarbons, pure nonionic surfactants, and water were carried out and interfacial tensions were measured as a function of time for n-hexadecane oil drops brought into contact with various mixtures of nonionic surfactant and water. Batch surfactant washing experiments were performed based on the measurement, results of PIT and interfacial tension and the results showed that maximum removal of n-hexadecane occurred at the PIT of the system. For the $C_{12}E_5(C_{12}H_{25}O(CH_2CH_2O)_5H)$ system, maximum n-hexadecane removal of 73.4% occurred at the PIT of $52^{\circ}C$. In contrast, n-hexadecane removal at $25^{\circ}C$ and at $60^{\circ}C$, each corresponding to the conditions of below PIT and above PIT of the system, was found to be 57.1% and 57.0% respectively. The maximum removal of a hydrocarbon at the PIT of a system, where the hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties are balanced, was found to be due to the existence of high oil solubilization into a middle-phase microemulsion and ultralow interfacial of the order of $10^{-2}$ to $10^{-3}$ dyne/cm between middle-phase microemulsion and excess oil phase.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.659-663
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• 2009

Bacterial stain 3Y was isolated from a site that was contaminated with diesel for more than 15 years. The strain could grow on various petroleum using hydrocarbons as the sole carbon source. The strain grew not only on aliphatic hydrocarbons but also on aromatic hydrocarbons. 3Y grew on aliphatic petroleum hydrocarbons hexane or hexadecane, and aromatic petroleum hydrocarbons BTEX, phenol, biphenyl, or phenanthrene. The strain showed aromatic ring dioxygenase and meta-cleavage dioxygenase activities as determined by tests using indole and catechol. Aromatic ring dioxygenase is involved in the initial step of biodegradation of aromatic hydrocarbons while meta-cleavage dioxygenase catalyzes the cleavage of the benzene ring. Based on a nucleotide sequence analysis of its 16S rRNA gene, 3Y belongs to the genus Sphingomonas. A phylogenetic tress was constructed based on the nucleotide sequences of closest relatives of 3Y and petroleum hydrocarbon degrading sphingomonads. 3Y was in a cluster that was different from the cluster that contained well-known sphingomonads. The results of this study suggest that 3Y has the potential to cleanup oil-contaminated sites. Further investigation is warranted to optimize conditions to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons by the strain to develop a better bioremediation strategy.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.spc
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• pp.99-112
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• 2022

From early 2000, many researchers in the groundwater and soil environment remediation project tried to calculate the pollution level and pollution remediation cost and reflect it in the design. In addition, by identifying the movement characteristics of oil pollutants in the underground environment, many researchers tried to derive design factors necessary for pollution purification. However, although the test should be conducted in an area contaminated with oil, the toxicity and risk are too great for testing by deliberately leaking pollutants that are harmful to the human body. And as oil-contaminated areas are promoted by military units such as returned US military bases, there is a limit to access by the general public. In addition, since the indoor simulation test and the field application test have been carried out separately from each other, it was difficult to compare and review various simulation tests Therefore, in this study, PITT (Partitioning Interwell Tracer Test) and analysis methods were specifically presented through actual tests so that field workers could easily use them with the help of the military base and the Korea Rural Community Corporation Soil Environment Restoration Team. However, in order to directly reflect the distribution tracer test results in the pollution remediation design, it is necessary to reduce the analysis errors by comparing the analysis results of the existing soil pollution survey, physical exploration, and numerical modeling. In addition, it is judged to be cautious in the analysis because errors can easily occur due to various factors such as the type of oil at the polluted site, the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer, and the skill of the researcher.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.191-200
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• 2003

Investigations on the contaminated lands due to heavy metals from mining activities or hydrocarbons from oil spillage for example, should be planned based on specific fitness-for-purpose criteria(FFP criteria). A FFP criterion is site specific or varies with situation, based on which not only the data quality but also the decision quality can be determined. The limiting factors on the qualities can be, for example, the total budget for the investigation, regulatory guidance or expert's subjective fitness-for-purpose criterion. This paper deals with planning of investigation methods that can satisfy each suggested FFP criterion based on economic factors and the data quality. To this aim, a probabilistic loss function was applied to derive the cost effective investigation method that balances the measurement uncertainty, which estimates the degree of the data quality, with the decision quality. In addition, investigation planning methods when the objectives of investigations do not lie in the classification of the land but simply in producing the estimation of the mean concentration of the contaminant at the site(e.g. for the use in risk assessment), were also suggested. Furthermore, the efficient allocation of resources between sampling and analysis was also devised. These methods were applied to the two contaminated sites in the UK to test the validity of each method.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.53-60
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• 2015

This study suggested the new site classification system according to land use, type of contamination and contaminants. Because the present site classification system can not cover all the areas, we changed the concept of land use to more detail one and enlarged the concept of other areas to cover all the areas not defined as certain land use. In case of the present industrial area, it was merged as other areas to avoid the confusion with oil and toxic material storage tank farm area. Accident area was separated from other areas and defined as only accident area caused by the mobile storage facility. In addition to classify the sites according to the basic land use, we classify the sites again in lower level according to the type of contamination and contaminants. With this classification system, we proposed different soil sampling strategy with the consideration of the origin of contamination and the interactions between soil and contaminants. We removed the surface soil sample (0~15 cm depth) around above storage tank because it was not a effective sample to assess whether that area contaminated or not. We also proposed to take the deeper soil samples at minimum three sampling points to confirm the depth of contamination in exploratory soil survey. We also proposed to remove the one point of 15 m depth sampling because it is not effective to confirm contaminated soil depth and needs the exhausted labor and cost. Instead of doing this, we added the continuous sampling to uncontaminated subsoil. Soil sampling points and depth in detailed soil survey is determined based on the results of exploratory soil survey. Therefore, effectiveness and reinforcements of exploratory soil survey would play an important role in improving the reliability of detailed soil survey.