Remediation of PCE Contaminated Soil Using Nanoparticles

摘要

Contamination of soils by dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) such as chlorinated hydrocarbons is an environmental concern in industrial and hazardous waste sites. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different solvents and surfactants to extract tetrachloroethylene (PCE) from contaminated soils and then degrade the solubilized PCE using fine metallic nano-size particles. Solvents such as water, methanol, iso propyl alcohol, anionic surfactant (Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)), cationic surfactant and UH biosurfactant were used to extract PCE from 200,000 mg/kg contaminated soils. Fe/Ni nano-bimetallic particles were used to degrade the extracted PCE in batch reactors. Nanoparticles were characterized using SEM and EDS. Desorption kinetics and isotherms for various solvents and the surfactant in extracting PCE from contaminated soils have been quantified. Rate and order of degradation of PCE by 100g/L Fe-Ni nanoparticles in various extraction solutions have been quantified.