• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.77-83
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• 2023

Background: The purpose of this study is to purify uranium (U[VI])-contaminated soil-flushing effluent using the precipitation-distillation process for clearance. Precipitation and distillation are commonly used techniques for water treatment. We propose using a combination of these methods for the simple and effective removal of U(VI) ions from soil-flushing effluents. In addition, the U concentration (Bq/g) of solid waste generated in the proposed treatment process was analyzed to confirm whether it satisfies the clearance level. Materials and Methods: Uranium-contaminated soil was decontaminated by soil-flushing using 0.5 M sulfuric acid. The soil-flushing effluent was treated with sodium hydroxide powder to precipitate U(VI) ions, and the remaining U(VI) ions were removed by phosphate addition. The effluent from which U(VI) ions were removed was distilled for reuse as a soil-flushing eluent. Results and Discussion: The purification method using the precipitation-distillation process proposed in this study effectively removes U(VI) ions from U-contaminated soil-flushing effluent. In addition, most of the solid waste generated in the purification process satisfied the clearance level. Conclusion: The proposed purification process is considered to have potential as a soil-flushing effluent treatment method to reduce the amount of radioactive waste generated.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.824-830
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• 2006

Several tests were conducted to optimize the design parameters of ln-situ soil flushing processes for diesel contaminated soil. According to the batch extraction test for three anionic surfactants evaluation, Calgonit limiting bubble occurrence was selected for its higher oil cleaning efficiency. After optimum surfactant selection, there were many sets of column flushing test. Over 70% of BTEX was removed in this surfactant dose with 400% of soil volume. In the case of no surfactant addition flushing in column, so called "blank flushing test", BTEX removal rate was 64%. But when we reused the effluent for the cleaning solution, the removal rate was decreased to 46.9%. This result showed reabsorption of oil occurred on the soil. With the addition of Calgonit solution to the diesel contaminated column, BTEX was removed up to 98.9% during the first flushing and 99.4% for the second recirculation flushing. In microcosm tests, diesel contaminated soils were cleaned by both surfactant flushing and biological activities. In anoxic condition, nitrate was used as an electron acceptor while the surfactant and the oil were used an electron donor. BTEX removal efficiency could be achieved up to 80% by biological degradation.

• 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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• 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.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.94-103
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• 2014

In this study washing efficiency and desorption isotherms for heavy petroleum oil (HPO), Zn, and Pb bound to complex contaminated soils were examined using various soil flushing agents. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), methanol, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), and citric acid were selected as soil flushing agents. 3% (w/v) and 4% SDS showed the highest removal efficiency for HPO, but the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Thus, 3% SDS was chosen as the best soil flushing agent for HPO. In the case of heavy metals, 0.1-M EDTA showed the highest removal efficiencies. But 0.05-M citric acid was selected due to its economic and eco-friendly strengths. The desorption isotherms obtained using Freundlich and Langmuir models indicated that the maximum desorption characteristics ($K_F$ and $Q_{max}$) of HPO with 4% SDS and 90% methanol and heavy metals with 0.1-M EDTA and 0.1-M citric acid, respectively, were markedly lower than in other cases. In addition, when 4% SDS and 90% methanol were used for HPO in the range of $C_e$ higher than 600 mg/L, and when 0.1M citric acid and 0.1M EDTA were used for Zn and Pb in the range of $C_e$ higher than 300 and 100 mg/L, respectively, the distribution constant converged to certain levels. Thus, constant values of $K_U$ and $K_L$ were determined. It was found that these constants represent the maximum desorption capacity and they can be used as distribution coefficients of desorption equilibrium for the flushing agents. The results of this study provided fundamental information for the selection of the best agents as well as for the process design and operation of soil washing/soil flushing of complex contaminated soils.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 1998

For successful soil flushing process selection of appropriate flushing reagents is essential. Futhermore, obtaining operating parameters for site remediation application through various bench-scale tests is also important. In this research a series of organic acids (acetic, citric, oxalic, and succinic acids) were tested for flushing capability. Copper-contaminated natural soil was used as a test medium, and flushing experiments were performed with batch system. All the organic acids used did not provide effective flushing conditions at concentration of 1 mM. At the acid concentration of 50 and 100 mM copper was removed efficiently although 50 and 100 mM did not show any significant differences in removal efficiencies. Citric acid and oxalic acid removed copper more efficiently than the others, and especially, citric acid showed over 87% of removal efficiency of copper at near neutral pH of 5 to 7. Speciation of extracted copper using GEOCHEM simulation showed majority of extracted copper existed as complexed with organic acids and only small portion of organic acids were complexed with copper indicating promising application of soil flushing with organic acid to heavy metal-contaminated site remediation.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.17-25
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• 2009

The applicability of soil washing/flushing to treat a contaminated soil with cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) using a mixture of organic/inorganic extractant was evaluated in laboratory-scale batch and column tests. Citric acid was the effective extractant to remove Cd and Cu from the soil among various organic acids except EDTA. Carbonic acid was chosen as inorganic extractant which was not only low toxicity to environment, but also increasing soil permeability. Moreover, the optimum ratio of organic and inorganic extractant to remove Cd and Cu was 10 : 1, and this ratio of organic and inorganic extractant achieved removal efficiencies of Cd (46%) and Cu (39%), respectively. The increasing flow rate of extractant could explain the phenomena of soil packing when carbonic acid was used with organic extractant (i.e. EDTA and citric acid). Therefore, a mixture of organic extractant with inorganic extractant, especially carbonic acid, could resolve a problem of soil packing when this extractant was applied to a field application to remove Cd and Cu using in-situ soil flushing process.

• 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.

• 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.