Effect of ultrasound on oil removal from soils.

Abstract The soil-flushing method enhanced by ultrasonic waves is a new technique that potentially can become an effective method for in situ remediation of the ground contaminated by NAPL hydrocarbons. This study investigated the effectiveness of ultrasound enhancement in the soil-flushing method for a range of conditions involving soil type, soil density, flushing rate, and sonication power. The study was conducted in the laboratory using specially designed and fabricated equipment. The test results indicated that the rate of contaminant extraction increased considerably with increasing sonication power up to the level where cavitation occurred. The effectiveness of sonication-enhanced soil-flushing can be expressed as a function of (D 10 ) 2 ∗i , in which D 10 is the effective grain size, and i is the hydraulic gradient.