A Field Study of Surfactant Enhanced In-Situ Remediation using Injection Wells and Recovery Trench at a Jet Oil Contaminated Site

This study reports a surfactant-enhanced in-situ remediation treatment at a test site which is located in a hilly terrain. The leakage oils from a storage tank situated on the top of the hill contaminated soils and groundwater in the lower elevation. Sixteen vertical injection wells (11 m deep) were installed at the top of the hill to introduce 0.1-0.5 vol.% of non-ionic Tween-80 surfactant. The contaminated area that required remediation treatment was about . Two cycles of injecting surfactant solution followed by water were repeated over approximately 7.5 months: first cycle with 0.5 month of surfactant injection followed by 3 months of water injection, and second cycle with 1 month of surfactant followed by 3 months of water injection. The seasonal fluctuation in groundwater table was also considered in the selection of periods for surfactant and water injection. The results showed that the initial Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) concentration of 1,041 mg/kg (maximum 3,605 mg/kg) was reduced significantly down to 76.6 mg/kg in average. After 2nd surfactant injection process finished, average TPH concentration of soils was reduced to 7.5% compared to initial concentration. Also, average BTEX concentration of soils was reduced to 10.8%. This resultes show that the surfactant enhanced in-situ remediation processes can be applicable to LNAPL contaminated site in field scale.