• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1-7
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• 2016

The removal of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) from groundwater using pure water, via pump and treat, is quite ineffective due to their low solubility and hydrophobicity. Therefore, the objectives of pilot tests were to select potentially suitable surfactants that solubilize tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) present as contaminants and to evaluate the optimal range of process parameters that can increase the removal efficiency in surfactant-enhanced soil flushing (SESF). Used experimental method for surfactant selection was batch experiments. The surfactant solution parameters for SESF pilot tests were surfactant solution concentration, surfactant solution pH, and the flow rate of surfactant solution in the SESF pilot system. Based on the batch experiments for surfactant selection, DOSL (an anionic surfactant) was selected as a suitable surfactant that solubilizes PCE and TCE present as contaminants. The highest recovery (95%) of the contaminants was obtained using a DOSL surfactant in the batch experiments. The pilot test results revealed that the optimum conditions were achieved with a surfactant solution concentration of 4% (v/v), a surfactant solution pH of 7.5, and a flow rate of 30 L/min of surfactant solution (Lee and Woo, 2015). The maximum removal of contaminants (89%) was obtained when optimum conditions were simultaneously met in pilot-scale SESF operations. These results confirm the viability of SESF for treating PCE and TCE-contaminated groundwater.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.418-421
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• 2003

Surfactant enhanced in-situ soil flushing was peformed to remediate the soil and groundwater at an oil contaminated site, and the effluent solution was treated by the chemical treatment process including DAF(Dissolved Air Flotation). A section from the contaminated site(4.5m$\times$4.5m$\times$6.0m) was selected for the research, which was composed of heterogeneous sandy and silt-sandy soils with average Hydraulic conductivity of 2.0$\times$10$^{-4}$ cm/sec. Two percent of sorbitan monooleate(POE 20) and 0.07% of iso-prophyl alcohol were mixed for the surfactant solution and 3 pore volumes of surfactant solution were injected to remove oil from the contaminant section. Four injection wells and two extraction wells were built in the section to flush surfactant solution. Water samples taken from extraction wells and the storage tank were analyzed by GC(gas-chromatography) for TPH concentration with different time. Five pore volumes of solution were extracted while TPH concentration in soil and groundwater at the section were below the Waste Water Discharge Limit(WWDL). Total 18.5kg of oil (TPH) was removed from the section. The concentration of heavy metals in the effluent solution also increased with the increase of TPH concentration, suggesting that the surfactant enhanced in-situ flushing be available to remove not only oil but heavy metals from contaminated sites. Results suggest that in-situ soil flushing and chemical treatment process including DAF could be a successful process to remediate contaminated sites distributed in Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.215-218
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• 2005

We applied the density-surfactant-motivated method to the removal of DNAPL within a rough-walled single fracture. Observations are made to compare the DNAPL residual distribution before and after the flushing of surfactant-enhanced solution or water flushing. Results show that density-motivated method with surfactant-enhanced solution effectively removed DNAPL in a single fracture.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to find the effect of the mixture of the nonionic surfactant and bioactive agent that solubilizes trichlorobenzene (TCB) present as a contaminant for surfactant-enhanced soil flushing (SESF). Three different nonionic surfactants and two different bioactive agents were obtained from four companies. Separate funnel experiments and shaker table agitation / centrifugation experiments were used for the test. Based on the separate funnel experimental results, three suitable mixture agents (APG + OSE, Brij 35 + MOSE, T-Maz 60 + MOSE) were selected. In the shaker table agitation / centrifugation experiments, these three different mixture agents were reduced to one (T-Maz 60 +MOSE). The maximum removal (95%) of TCB was obtained using a mixture of the nonionic surfactant and bioactive agent. Therefore, the used test methods and results can be used for SESF.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.51-54
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• 2003

Three kinds of experiments were conducted to test existing methods and develop an effective methodology for the remediation of DNAPL trapped in vertical dead-end fractures. A water-flushing method failed to remove TCE from vertical dead-end fractures where no fluid flow occurs. A water-flushing experiment implies that existing remediation methods, utilizing water-based remedial fluid such as surfactant-enhanced method, have difficulty in removing DNAPL trapped from the vertical downward dead-end fractures, because of no water flow through dead-end fractures, capillary, and gravity forces. Fluid denser than TCE was injected into the fracture network, but did not displace TCE from the vertical dead-end fractures. Base(B on the analysis of the experiments, the increase in the density of the dense fluid and the addition of surfactant to the dense fluid were suggested, and this composite dense fluid with surfactant effectively removed TCE from the vertical dead-end fractures.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.291-300
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• 1999

Surfactant flushing for enhancing the removal of BTEX from contaminated sand/clay mixtures was investigated. Eight soil columns packed with relatively undisturbed BTEX contaminated soils, were leached with water, methyl alcohol and then flushed with surfactant with or without several additives. Initial concentrations of BTEX mixture range from 278mg/kg to 1975mg/kg. Initial BTEX removal efficiency was 98% when the contaminated soil was flushed with water of 850 pore volumes. Because of tailing effect, water flushing could not remove below 8mg/kg concentrations during the experimental period. Eventually, the most effective surfactant for flushing was turned out to be 4% SOFTANOL(equation omitted)-90 with 3% ethyl alcohol and 3% SXS. In interrupted flow conditions, the removal efficiency was 99.5% with the flushed water of 95 pore volumes. The BTEX mixture removed from the soil columns during the surfactant flushing ranges from 84.5% to 99.5% of the initial amount for both water leaching(850 pore volumes) and surfactant flushing(95-165 pore volumes), respectively. Test results indicated that surfactant flushing could enhance the removal of BTEX mixture from contaminated soils and could reduce the aqueous phase BTEX mixture concentration in leachate.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.77-86
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• 2002

Surfactant enhanced in-situ soil flushing was performed to remediate the soil and groundwater at an oil contaminated site, where had been used as a military vehicle repair area for 40 years. A section from the contaminated site (4.5 m $\times$ 4.5 m $\times$ 6.0 m) was selected for the research, which was composed of heterogeneous sandy and silt-sandy soils with average $K_d$ of 2.0$\times$$10^{-4}$cm/sec. Two percent of sorbitan monooleate (POE 20) and 0.07% of iso-prophyl alcohol were mixed for the surfactant solution and 3 pore volumes of surfactant solution were injected to remove oil from the contaminated section. Four injection wells and two extraction wells were built in the section to flush surfactant solution. Water samples taken from extraction wells and the storage tank were analyzed on a gas-chromatography (GC) for TPH concentration in the effluent with different time. Five pore volumes of solution were extracted while TPH concentration in soil and groundwater at the section were below the Waste Water Discharge Limit (WWDL). The effluent TPH concentration from wells with only water flushing was below 10 ppm. However, the effluent concentration using surfactant solution flushing increased to 1751 ppm, which was more than 170 times compared with the concentration with only water flushing. Total 18.5 kg of oil (TPH) was removed from the soil and groundwater at the section. The concentration of heavy metals in the effluent solution also increased with the increase of TPH concentration, suggesting that the surfactant enhanced in-situ flushing be available to remove not only oil but heavy metals from contaminated sites. The removal efficiency of surfactant enhanced in-situ flushing was investigated at the real contaminated site in Korea. Results suggest that in-situ soil flushing could be a successful process to remediate contaminated sites distributed in Korea.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.31-37
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• 2011

The feasibility study of soil flushing was investigated to remediate lubricant oil and zinc contaminated railway soil. In this study, mixed washing agents of surfactant and inorganic acid/base were used for the simultaneous removal. The mixed washing agent of non-ionic surfactant and HCl removed 15% of the lubricant oil and 40% of zinc, respectively. Alkaline-enhanced soil washing process increased the removal of lubricant oil up to 40%. This is because alkaline solution reduced the interfacial tension between water phase and lubricant oil phase due to the soap formation reaction. To simulate in-situ soil flushing for the remediation of railroad-related contamination, two dimensional soil flushing was carried out based on the results of batch soil washing. In the soil flushing, the removal efficiencies of lubricant oil and zinc were 34% and 16%, respectively. Even though the removal efficiency was low, the mixed washing agent can remove metal and lubricant oil simultaneously.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.215-218
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• 2004

The electrokinetically enhanced soil flushing had a great potential to improve the removal efficiency of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from low permeable soils. A semi-pilot study of surfactant-enhanced electrokinetic process was investigated for the removal of phenanthrene from kaolinite. A nonionic surfactant, Tergitol 15-S-12 at 10 g/L was introduced as a flushing agent and 0.001M of sodium chloride was used as an electrolyte. When the constant voltage of 100 V was applied to the system for 25 days, only 0.66 kWh of electric power was consumed and the amount of electroosmotic flow was 6.9 L. The removal efficiency of phenanthrene was about 40 % and it can be improved by increasing the ion concentration of the flushing solution or the applied voltage.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.356-359
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• 2003

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are representative hydrophobic organic carbons (HOCs). Surfactant-enhanced electrokinetic (EK) remediation is an innovative in-situ technology that can effectively remove HOCs from low-permeability soils. In this study, the electrokinetic remediation using Tergitol 15-S-12, a nonionic surfactant, was conducted for the removal of phenanthrene from kaolinite. Tergitol 15-S-12 was used at concentrations of 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 7.5 g/L to enhance the solubility of phenanthrene. When the surfactant solution was applied to EK system, high electrical potential gradient was maintained and the amount of electroosmotic flow decreased. Removal efficiency of phenanthrene was proportional to the concentration of Tergitol 15-S-12 because the solubility and mobility of phenanthrene was enhanced by surfactant micelle. Therefore, the suitable concentration of nonionic surfactant Tergitol 15-S-12 is expected to improve the removal efficiency of PAHs in EK remediation.