• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is an effective and cost efficient method of removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and petroleum hydrocarbons from unsaturated soils. However, soil vapor extraction becomes ineffective in soils with low gas permeability, for example soils with air permeabilities less than 1 Darcy. The aim of this study is to investigate numerically the performance of a prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) as a SVE well, and the pattern of the induced air flow. A validated numerical model for a single PVD extraction well is developed based on the result of a well-designed laboratory model test. The validity of the simple analytical approach to determine air permeability based on the results of model tests is also discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.1400-1407
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• 2005

There are a number of approaches to in situ remediation that are used at contaminated sites for removing contaminants from the contaminated zone without excavating the soil. These include soil flushing, dual phase extraction, and soil vapor extraction. Of these techniques, soil flushing is the focus of the investigation in this paper. The concept of using prefabricated vertical drains(PVDs) for remediation of contaminated sites with fine-grained soils is examined. The PVD system is used to shorten the drainage path or the groundwater flow and promote subsurface liquid movement expediting the soil flushing process. The use of PVDs in the current state of practice has been limited to soil improvement. The use of PVDs under vacuum conditions is investigated using sample soil consisting of silty sand.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.250-252
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• 2002

The goals of environmental monitoring are to locate and quantify the significant contamination, estimate the fate and transport, estimate the potential exposure and risks to humans and the environment, and track the performance of various remedial technologies. In this study, ceramic gas sensor system is proposed to enhance the effectiveness of soil vapor extraction (SVE) process by monitoring the effluent gas. SVE is a technique that is widely used to remediate unsaturated soils contaminated with volatile organic contaminants. The sensor response for benzene, toluene, and xylene, the representative effluent gas compositions of SVE process, was evaluated using the proposed sensor system. As a result, it was verified that the response of sensor was increased or decreased very sensitively according to the change of the effluent gas concentration. Besides, the sensor could detect the difference over a wide range of concentration and it was more sensitive in order of xylene, toluene, and benzene. It is expected that this VOC analysis method results in field monitoring costs saying and appropriate immediate action for process control. More detailed experiments are being conducted in our research group.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.48-55
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• 2013

This study aimed at characterizing unsaturated zone at the source zone area contaminated by DNAPL and investigating feasibility of soil vapor extraction (SVE). Five boreholes with three multi-level screens at the depth of 3.0~4.5 m, 5.5~7.0 m, and 8.0~12.0 m were installed at the source zone. Pneumatic tests were performed to determine the permeability of porous medium. Permeability was estimated to be 81.6 to 203.7 darcy, depending on the applied solutions, which was contradicted by grain size analysis of cored soil samples leading to 3.51 darcy. This is due to air flow through gravel pack during the early stage of pneumatic test. Pressure-drawdown curve in the late stage also well showed the leaky aquifer type, indicating air leakage to the ground. Air flow tests were also carried out to investigate air flow connectivity between multi-level wells, indicating that the horizontal air flow was well developed between the lower screens of the wells, not between the upper and middle screens due to the leakage to the surface. For the SVE test, there was no noticeable variation in TCE vapor concentration between three different test runs: 1. 8 hours daily for 5 days, 2. 24 hours together with air blowing at another well (BH1), 3. five consecutive days. Even for five-day consecutive test, total amount of removed TCE was estimated only to be as low as 46.5 g.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.3-15
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• 1999

This paper includes the basic experimental results performed for developing an innovative and technologically feasible process wherein gaseous ozone, a powerful oxidant. is injected directly into vadose zone by which in-situ chemical degradation of semi- or, non-volatile petroleum product such as diesel fuel is derived. As ozone gas injected continuously(50mL/min, 119.0$\pm$6.1mg/L) into soil packed columns artificially contaminated with diesel fuel(initial concentration 1,485mg-DRO/kg/soil), the removal rates at the inlet and outlet point of 14hrs-operated column are 87.9% and 100.0%, respectively. On the other hand, soil vapor extraction system showed less than 30% of removal rates of residual diesel both at the inlet and outlet samples under the same experimental conditions which confirms the limited treatability of SVE in diesel contaminated soil.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.137-140
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to see the effect of SVE (Soil Vapor Extraction) and Bioventing (biostimulation) hydrocarbon contaminated areas. The removal rate of VOC for three weeks were 17.43 kg on 3.6 ㎥/hr at steady-state. In the application of Bioventing, every flow rate were tested, and it was found that 4.0 ㎥/hr were adequate for best control of the system. At this stage, the addition of microbial agent accelerated the biodegradation of the hydrocarbon.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.221-227
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• 2002

Column experiments were performed to evaluate the removal efficiency of soil vapor extraction (SVE) iota TCE (trichloroethylene) and toluene in soil. Homogeneous Ottawa sands and real soils collected from contaminated area were used to investigate the effect of soil properties and SVE operation conditions on the removal efficiency. In column teats with two different sizes of Ottawa sand, the maximum effluent TCE concentration in a coarse sand column was 442 mg/L and 337 mg/L in a fine sand column. However, after 20 liter gas flushing, the effluent concentrations were very similar and more than 90% of initial TCE mass were removed from the column. For two real contaminated soil columns, the maximum effluent concentration decreased 50% compared with that in the homogeneous Ottawa coarse sand column, but 99% of initial TCE mass were extracted from the column within 40 liter air flushing, suggesting that SVE is very available to remove volatile NAPLs in the contaminated soil. To investigate the effect of contaminant existing time on the removal efficiency, an Ottawa sand column was left stable for one week after TCE was injected and the gas extraction was applied into the column. Its effluent concentration trend was very similar to those for other Ottawa sand columns except that the residual TCE after the air flushing showed relatively high. Column tests with different water contents were performed and results showed high removal efficiency even in a high water content sand column. Toluene as one of BTEX compounds was used in an Ottawa sand column and a real soil column. Removal trends were similar to those in TCE contaminated columns and more than 98% of initial toluene mass were removed with SVE in both column.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.28-40
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• 2004

Box experiments were performed to evaluate the removal efficiency of SVE (soil vapor extraction) for gasoline in soil. An activated carbon sorption tower and a biofilter were operated as post-treatment processes to remove VOCs extracted from extraction wells of SVE. An acrylic resin box (65 cm${\times}$20 cm${\times}$30 cm) was used to make artificial soil layers and two injection wells and one extraction well were built for SVE process in the box. Gases from extraction wells flew into the activated carbon sorption tower or the biofilter. Gasoline concentrations of VOCs emitted from the extraction well were compared with those after post treatments. More than 92% of initial gasoline mass in soil were removed by SVE within few days, suggesting that SVE is very available to remove VOCs from contaminated soils. To treat VOCs from extraction wells of SVE, an activated carbon sorption tower and a biofilter were attached to SVE process and their gasoline removal efficiencies were measured. These post treatment systems lowered gasoline concentrations to below 1.0 ppm within few days. Average remediation efficiency was 98% of gasoline for the activated carbon sorption tower and 84.1% for the biofilter. The maximum removal capacity of a biofilter was 10.7 g/L/hr, which was ten times higher than general biofilter removal capacity. Results from the study suggest that the activated carbon sorption tower and the biofilter would be available for the post treatment process to remove VOCs generated from SVE process.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2005

Contamination of soils and groundwater by leakage of petroleum compounds from underground storage tanks (USTs) has become great environmental issues. Conventional methods such as soil vapor extraction (SVE) used for the remediation of unsaturated soils contaminated with volatile organic compounds might not be applied for the removal of semi-volatile organic compounds such as diesel fuels and PCBs, which have low volatility and high hydrophobicity. The objective of this study is to develop a hot air injection method to remove semi-volatile compounds. Additionally, operation parameters such as temperature, air flow rate, and water content are evaluated. Experimental results show that diesel ranged organics (DROs) are removed in the order of volatility of organic compounds. As expected, removal efficiency of organics is highly dependent on the temperature. It is considered that more than $90\%$ of organic contaminants whose carbon numbers range between 17 and 22 can be removed efficiently by the hot air injection-extraction method (modified SVE) over the $100^{\circ}C$. It is also found that increased air flow rate resulted in high removal rate of contaminants. However, air flow rate over 40 cc/min is not effective for the operation aspects, due to mass transfer limitation on the volatilization rate of the contaminants. The effect of the water content on the decane removal is minimal, but some components show large dependence on the removal efficiency with increasing water content.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.121-128
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• 2000

Landfill and lysimeter experiments were conducted to estimate the optimum air injection method for the degradation of waste in landfill and the pre-stabilization. Continuous injection with low pressure and quantity can be effective for pre-stabilization of old landfill due to the lower contents of volatile solids in landfill. Air injection and landfill gas (LFG)extraction showed that the SVE (Soil Vapor Extraction) effect by air ventilation was more significant than the biodegradation of organics. Theses results suggested that they could accelerate the biological stabilization of organic waste in landfills. It is also expected that they would reduce the problems including gas emission during the landfill mining, separation and/or transportation to such levels that might be discharged directly to the atmosphere or with minimal treatment, if required.