Enhanced Electrokinetic Soil Remediation for Removal of Organic Contaminants

Organic contamination in soil is a common problem at hazardous waste sites. This study investigates the application of enhanced electrokinetic soil processing to remediate soils contaminated with phenol (C6H5OH) and PCP (pentachlorophenol: Cl5C6OH). Electrokinetic soil remediation has high removal efficiency and time-effectiveness in low permeability soils such as clay. This experimental study examined the enhanced process of electrokinetically purging chemicals from saturated soils. Electrokinetic soil processing can significantly remove non-polar organic contaminants with electromigration, electroosmosis, diffusion and electrolysis of water. The removal efficiency is significantly influenced by applied voltage and current, type of purging solutions, soil pH, permeability and zeta potentials of soil. Depending on the original level or load of pollutants and the duration of the removal process, the removal efficiencies of phenol and PCP were higher than 85% over the duration of 4 days and mainly dependent on the electroosmotic flow.