27 Geochemistry, Organic (Posters)

Sunday, 31 October 2010
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Hall D

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PERSULFATE IN THE REMEDIATION OF PETROLEUM CONTAMINANTS IN SALINE ENVIRONMENT AT ELEVATED GROUNDWATER TEMPERATURE

Paper number: 27-6
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

In the past few decades, several aqueous oxidants have been employed (e.g. permanganate, persulfate) to remediate petroleum hydrocarbons. However, the majority of the research in this field has been focused primarily on the use of oxidants in treating fresh water at low groundwater temperature settings. In this study, bench top batch experiments were carried out to investigate the effectiveness of persulfate as an oxidation agent to remediate petroleum hydrocarbons in alternative settings (saline environments at high groundwater temperature). Benzene, Toluene, thylbenzenes, and Xylenes (BTEX), Trimethylbenzenes (TMBs), Naphthalene, and fractions (F1, F2 and F3) were the target investigated organic compounds during this project.

Three important aspects were examined during this laboratory study: 1) the evaluation of (alkaline activated and non-activated) persulfate as a chemical oxidation agent; 2) the investigation of the effect of different persulfate concentrations (20 versus 100 g/L) on the degradation rates of selected organic contaminants; and 3) the determination of isotopic (13C and 2H) fractionation factors associated with the chemical transformations of several organic contaminants.

The outcome of this study will aid in selecting the most effective remediation methods in these alternative settings (high salinity and elevated temperatures). Furthermore, this study will enhance the use of compound-specific isotope analyses (CSIA) as a monitoring tool to better understand the fate of organic compounds during the remediation treatment.