Remediating 46 Acres of Petroleum Hydrocarbons with Biologically-enhanced Soil Vapor Extraction: Initial System Operations and Data Evaluation

摘要

Biologically-enhanced soil-vapor extraction (BSVE) was selected as the alternative to remediate a 46-acre zone of free-product jet fuel at a 58-year old aircraft engines manufacturing and testing facility in the southwestern United States (Site). BSVE was approved by the State regulatory agency in October 2005, and following a lengthy and complicated permitting process, significant input from multiple stakeholders, and changes to the subsurface conditions, construction of the system began in April 2008. Initial construction and operation of the system contained the portion of the overall target treatment area located on the Site itself, which covers about 47 of the 77 total acres that comprise the overall target treatment area.rnInitial construction of the BSVE system included the installation of 51 process (injection/extraction), monitoring, and convertible wells, digging approximately I mile of trenches, emplacing approximately 5 miles of subsurface and aboveground piping, and assembly of a treatment train consisting of a 300 horsepower extraction blower, a 7 million British Thermal Unit per hour thermal oxidizer, a custom quench tube and scrubber to rapidly cool the thermal oxidizer effluent, and 40,000 pounds of carbon (20,000 pounds of which are potassium permanganate-impregnated). Construction was completed in early May 2009 and was followed by pre-startup testing of the treatment system primarily focusing on high-temperature testing of the thermal oxidizer and its associated components.rnInitial operation of the BSVE system commenced on May 27, 2009 with extraction of soil vapor from the first process well. This paper will provide a summary of the first 4 to 5 months of system operation and data evaluation, including a discussion of mass removal via volatilization and biodegradation.