• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.85-103
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• 2023

The in-situ remediation of a solidified stratum containing a large amount of fine-texture material like clay or organic matter in contaminated soil faces limitations such as increased remediation cost resulting from decreased purification efficiency. Even if the soil conditions are good, remediation generally requires a long time to complete because of non-uniform soil properties and low permeability. This study assessed the remediation effect and evaluated the field applicability of a methodology that combines pneumatic fracturing, vacuum extraction, and plasma blasting (the PPV method) to improve the limitations facing existing underground remediation methods. For comparison, underground remediation was performed over 80 days using the experimental PPV method and chemical oxidation (the control method). The control group showed no decrease in the degree of contamination due to the poor delivery of the soil remediation agent, whereas the PPV method clearly reduced the degree of contamination during the remediation period. Remediation effect, as assessed by the reduction of the highest TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons) concentration by distance from the injection well, was uncleared in the control group, whereas the PPV method showed a remediation effect of 62.6% within a 1 m radius of the injection well radius, 90.1% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 92.1% within 2.1~3.0 m. When evaluating the remediation efficiency by considering the average rate of TPH concentration reduction by distance from the injection well, the control group was not clear; in contrast, the PPV method showed 53.6% remediation effect within 1 m of the injection well, 82.4% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 68.7% within 2.1~3.0 m. Both ways of considering purification efficiency (based on changes in TPH maximum and average contamination concentration) found the PPV method to increase the remediation effect by 149.0~184.8% compared with the control group; its average increase in remediation effect was ~167%. The time taken to reduce contamination by 80% of the initial concentration was evaluated by deriving a correlation equation through analysis of the TPH concentration: the PPV method could reduce the purification time by 184.4% compared with chemical oxidation. However, the present evaluation of a single site cannot be equally applied to all strata, so additional research is necessary to explore more clearly the proposed method's effect.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2013

To improve the energy efficiency of conventional thermal treatment, soil remediation with microwave has been studied. In this study, the remediation efficiency of contaminated soil with semi-volatile organic contaminants were evaluated with microwave oven and several additives such as water, formic acid, iron powder, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, and activated carbon. For the experiment, loamy sand and sandy loam collected from Imjin river flood plain were intentionally contaminated with hexachlorobenzene and phenanthrene, respectively. The contaminated soils were treated with microwave facility and the mass removals of organic contaminants from soils were evaluated. Among additives that were added to increase the remediation efficiency, activated carbon and NaOH solution were more effective than water, iron powder, and formic acid. When 10 g of hexachlorobenzene (142.4 mg/kg-soil) or phenanthrene (2,138.8 mg/kg-soil) contaminated soil that mixed with 0.5 g iron powder, 0.5 g activated carbon and 1 ml 6.25 M NaOH solution were treated with microwave for 3 minutes, more than 95% of contaminants were removed. The degradation of hexachlorobenzene during microwave treatments with additives was confirmed by the detection of pentachlorobenzene and tetrachlorobenzene. Naphthalene and phenol were also detected as degradation products of phenanthrene during microwave treatment with additives. The results showed that adding a suitable amount of additives for microwave treatments fairly increased the efficiency of removing semi-volatile soil organic contaminants.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.13-17
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• 2014

Subcritical water acts like an organic solvent at elevated temperature in terms of its physicochemical properties. Taking into account this advantage, the remediation experiments of benzo[a]pyrene contaminated soil (8.45 mg/kg of initial concentration) were conducted using subcritical water extraction apparatus. The effect of operating factors on the removal efficiency was studied at the varying the conditions of the water temperature ranging $200{\sim}300^{\circ}C$, extraction time 30~90 min, and flow rate 0.3~2.0 mL/min. 12 g of benzo[a]pyrene contaminated soil was inserted into the extraction cell and placed into the reactor and then the subcritical water was driven through the cell. In this study, the removal efficiency of benzo[a]pyrene was increased from 55.1 to 98.1% when the temperature increased from 200 to $300^{\circ}C$. The removal efficiency was decreased from 97.0 to 77.0% when the flow rate increased from 0.3 to 2.0 mL/min, suggesting that the extraction is limited by intra-particle diffusion. The 30 min reaction time was determined as an effective treatment time at $250^{\circ}C$. Based on the results, the optimum condition for the remediation of benzo[a]pyrene contaminated soil was suggested to be $250^{\circ}C$, 30 min, and 0.3 mL/min.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.597-604
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• 2003

In the soil washing process, the contaminants are usually removed by abrasion from soil particles using mechanical energy and water However, organic contaminants with low water solubility like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are remained on soil particles. Previous studies have shown that surfactant possessing amphipathic activity enhances the solubility of organic materials. For this reason solutions with surfactants have been used to improve removal of organic contaminants on soil washing process. But, in this manner, many problems were found like complete loss of surfactants and additional contamination by surfactant. The remediation method using microemulsion has been introduced to overcome these disadvantages. In this case, surfactants are recycled by phase separation of microemulsion after remediation. In microemulsion process, the surfactant will be recycled by phase separation of the microemulsion into a surfactant-rich aqueous phase and an oil phase after extraction. That is why remediation concept applying microemulsion as washing media has been Introduced. Suitable microemulsion have to be used in order to have the chance of refilling the soil after decontamination and to avoid any risk due to toxicity. The purpose of this research is to evaluate effect of microemulsion to remediation of contaminated soil. We performed test with various organic contaminants like Pyrene and BTEX, also compared efficiency of remediation in microemulsion process with soil washing

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.95-100
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• 2009

Strategies incorporating more efficient energy use into remediation of contaminated sites, which are those of important elements in green remediation, are developed and discussed in this work. Firstly, from several case studies of remedial actions in Korea, thermal desorption and/or in-situ method including pump-and-treat were found energy intensive and soil washing less intensive. In order to use energy efficiently and minimize use of fossil fuels during land revitalization process, it is necessary to optimize energy intensive systems, to use low energy remediation systems (such as bioremediation), and to integrate renewable energy sources. Furthermore, economic incentive systems such as subsidy need to be adopted if renewable energy sources are incorporated into remediation of contaminated sites.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.243-246
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• 2002

Surfactant-enhanced electrokinetic remediation is an emerging technology that can effectively remove hydrocarbons from low-permeability soils. In this study, the electrokinetic remediation using APG(alkyl polyglucoside) was conducted for the removal of phenanthrene from kaolinite. APG, which was an environmentally compatible and non-toxic surfactant, was used at concentrations of 5, 15, and 30g/1 to enhance the solubility of phenanthrene. Also an electrolyte solution was used for considering a relation between electrical potential gradient and removal efficiency of phenanthrene. When the electrolyte solution was used, it represented low electrical potential gradient, but the removal efficiency was lower than that of no electrolyte system. Removal efficiency of phenanthrene in EK process using surfactant solution depended on concentration of surfactant. Because surfactant increased the solubility and the mobility of phenanthrene, when surfactant concentration was high, high removal efficiency was observed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2004.03b
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• pp.873-881
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• 2004

A serious of EK remediation tests on contaminated soil are performed under unsaturated conditions and analyzed for electrical potential, water content, pH and so on. The results indicated that electrical potential and pH distributions in the sample are dependent on the amount and inward/outward flow of hydrogen ion. Specially, for the closed system the water content is largely decreased with the flow of hydrogen. The maximum electrical conductivity is measured at the catholyte of CEM(Sealing) test and directly related to the remedial efficiency. Although pHs in the region near to the anode are similarly developed, the different concentration of lead is measured with the electrical gradient contrary to the lead concentration dependent on pH within the sample.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.885-893
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• 2014

This research reports the enhanced Electrokinetic (EK) with $H_2O_2$ and sodium dodecyl surfate (SDS), which are commonly used in Fenton oxidation and soil flushing method, in order to remediate soil contaminated with heavy metals and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) simultaneously. In addition, influences of property of soil and concentration of chemical solution were investigated through experiments of different types of soils and varying concentration of chemical reagents. The results indicated, in the experiments using artificially contaminated soil, the highest removal efficiency of heavy metals using 10% $H_2O_2$ and 20mM SDS as electrolytes. However, in the experiments using Yong-San soils (study area), remediation efficiency of heavy metals was decreased because high acid buffering capacity. Through experiment of 20% $H_2O_2$ and 40mM SDS, increased electric current influences the remediation of heavy metals due to decrease in the soil pH. In the experiments of Yong-San soils, the remediation efficiency of TPH was decreased compared with artificially spiked soils because high acid buffering capacity and organic carbon contents. Furthermore, the scavenger effect of SDS influenced TPH oxidation efficiency under the conditions of injected 40mM SDS in the soils. Therefore, the property of soil and concentration of chemical reagents cause the electroosmotic flow, soil pH, remediation efficiency of heavy metals and TPH.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1C
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• pp.9-17
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• 2006

The numerical analysis to predicting the electrokinetic remediation behavior on unsaturated soil is carried out by aiding HERO, Hanyang Unversity Electrokinetic Remediation program, developed from the finite difference method and in the VISUAL FORTRAN environment. The analysis for the pure kaolinite under saturated conditions is performed on the results of the previous study of Acar (1997). Also the predictions to the characteristics of electrokinetic remediation on unsaturated conditions are performed and the conclusions summarized as follows. First, pH of the electrolyte in the reservoirs is not different with the degree of saturation resulted from the changes in electrical efficiency. But the advance of acid front is increased dependent on the degree of saturation in contrary to the transportation of base front. Second, below the degree of saturation of 83%, which is equivalent to the optimum water content, the removal effect increased with the decreasing of degree of saturation. But it have no effect on the efficiency of removal over the degree of saturation of 83%.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.22-36
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• 2022

Cadmium is a class 1 carcinogen classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and has a high potential for leaching into groundwater. Therefore, it is necessary to address cadmium contamination by employing adequate treatment methodologies. Although various methods have been suggested to reduce cadmium in groundwater, their applications often suffer from various limitation arising from heterogeneous field conditions and technical difficulties. In this work, several in-situ technologies to treat cadmium contaminated groundwater were reviewed and discussed by separately addressing physicochemical, chemical and biological methods. In particular, the optimum cadmium remediation strategies that involve physical removal of source area → physicochemical and chemical remediation → biological remediation were proposed by considering reduction efficiency, adsorption rate, economic feasibility and ease of field application in groundwater.