Effect of Ethanol and Acetone Cosolvents in Enhancing Electrokinetic Remediation of Crude Oil Contaminated Soil Obtained from a Pipeline and Storage Company, Kaduna Nigeria

Abstract

A lot of work has shown that despite the effectiveness of the traditional electrokinetic remediation (EKR) technology in decontaminating soils with different types and amounts of contaminants, it can be enhanced by a number of strategies for extra effective performance. This work presents the effect of ethanol and acetone cosolvents in enhancing EKR of crude oil contaminated soil (COCS), collected at a depth of 1 m from a petroleum pipeline and storage company, Kaduna Nigeria using graphite electrodes to pass 1 V DC/cm across EKR setups enhanced by incorporating 20% ethanol and 20% acetone separately as cosolvents in the anode compartments of the setups. The total petroleum hydrocarbon results showed that the crude oil content of 78,600 mg/kg present in the COCS exceeds permissible limits for soils. Average removal efficiencies of 74.61% and 67.79% obtained from 20% ethanol and 20% acetone cosolvents enhancements respectively showed that 20% ethanol, with higher removal efficiency, is a better cosolvents for COCS than 20% acetone. Although 20% ethanol has been shown to be a better cosolvents compared to 20% acetone, either of them can be incorporated into EKR technology for enhancing the remediation of COCS.

Keywords

• electrokinetic remediation;
• crude oil;
• contamination;
• cosolvents