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Surfactant-enhanced Desorption of Organic Pollutants from Natural Soil

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Book cover Physicochemical Groundwater Remediation

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Abstract

The use of surface-active agents (i.e., surfactants) to increase the efficiency of pump-and-treat has been investigated for remediation sites where clean-up is limited by non-aqueous phase liquid dissolution and contaminant desorption. For both types of limitations, successful applications of the enhancement technologies have occurred at the laboratory scale and in a few small-scale field operations. For this chapter, emphasis is placed on assessing the use of surfactants to increase the rate of organic pollutant desorption from soil to water. The mechanisms of surfactant-enhanced desorption are introduced and factors affecting the efficiency and applicability of surfactant-enhanced remediation are discussed. To conclude the chapter, data are presented that show the effects of several different surfactants on the rate of trichloroethene (TCE) desorption from a peat soil. The surfactant Triton X-100 is shown to increase the rate of TCE desorption from a peat soil at several different concentrations. The increased rate of TCE desorption was caused by an increase in the desorption mass-transfer rate coefficient, as well as by increasing the concentration gradient driving desorption. This latter mechanism was only present at a surfactant concentration roughly twenty times the critical micelle concentration of Triton X-100. For the other surfactants tested - Tween 20, sodium dodecylsulfate, sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, and Triton X-405 - the rate of TCE desorption remained the same or was decreased. Results from this section emphasize the need for a better mechanistic understanding of the effects of surfactants on sorbed pollutants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506-0281

    James J. Deitsch & Elizabeth J. Rockaway

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  1. James J. Deitsch
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  2. Elizabeth J. Rockaway
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

    James A. Smith  & Susan E. Burns  & 

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© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Deitsch, J.J., Rockaway, E.J. (2002). Surfactant-enhanced Desorption of Organic Pollutants from Natural Soil. In: Smith, J.A., Burns, S.E. (eds) Physicochemical Groundwater Remediation. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46928-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46928-6_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-46569-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-306-46928-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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