GROUNDWATER REMEDIATION USING A NOVEL MICRO-BUBBLE SPARGING METHOD

Air sparging involves the injection of contaminant-free air below the water table. The injected air removes the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in groundwater. The efficiency of field remediation depends strongly on the path of airflow of the injected air, which flows through discrete channels. At some sites air sparging is not very effective. This study develops a novel means for generating numerous micro-bubbles and injecting them into groundwater. A column test was performed to estimate the feasibility of microbubble sparging for groundwater remediation. Experimental results indicate that the microbubbles were fine, uniform and flowed evenly though the sand matrix. Microbubble sparging rapidly removed benzene from water. This technique removed almost 90% of the benzene within 20 min during a test performed using a coarse sand column. Results of this study demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed microbubble sparging method to efficiently remove VOCs from contaminated groundwater.