A Novel Combination of Surfactant Addition and Persulfate-assisted Electrokinetic Oxidation for Remediation of Pyrene-Contaminated Soil

Abstract

Effect of surfactant addition on persulfate-assisted electrokinetic remediation of pyrene-spiked soil was studied. The influence of effective factors including voltage, surfactant addition, moisture content, and persulfate concentration on the removal of initial pyrene concentration of 200 mg kg–1 were investigated. A complete pyrene removal was observed for voltage of 1 V cm–1, saturated conditions, Tween 80 concentration of 20 mL kg–1, and persulfate concentration of 100 mg kg–1 after 24 h, corresponding to pyrene mineralization of 61 %, based on TPH analysis. The experimental results were best fitted with pseudo-first-order kinetic model with correlation coefficient of 0.968 and rate constant of 0.191 min−1. The main intermediates of pyrene degradation were benzene o-toluic acid, acetic, azulene, naphthalene and decanoic acid. Finally, an unwashed hydrocarbon-contaminated soil was subjected to persulfate-assisted electrokinetic remediation, and a TPH removal of 38 % was observed for the initial TPH content of 912 mg kg–1, under the selected conditions.

Keywords

• Soil remediation
• Electrokinetic oxidation
• Persulfate
• Surfactant
• Pyrene