Remediation of phenanthrene contaminated soils by nonionic-anionic surfactant washing coupled with activated carbon adsorption

Hydrogen peroxide combined with surfactant leaching and microbial community recovery from oil sludge

The remediation effects of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) oxidation and surfactant-leaching alone or in combination on three typical oilfield sludges were studied. The removal efficiency of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) of Jidong, Liaohe and Jiangsu oil sludges by hydrogen peroxide oxidation alone was very poor (6.5, 6.8, and 3.4 %, respectively) but increased significantly (p < 0.05), especially of long-chain hydrocarbons, by combining the use of H₂O₂ with surfactants (80.0, 79.8 and 82.2 %, respectively). Oxidation combined with leaching may impair microbial activity and organic manure was therefore added to the treated sludges for biostimulation and the composition and function of the microbial community were studied. The addition of manure rapidly restored sludge microbial activity and significantly increased the relative abundance of some salt-tolerant and alkali-tolerant petroleum-degrading bacteria such as Corynebacterium, Pseudomonas, Dietzia and Jeotgalicoccus. Moreover, the relative abundance of two classic petroleum-degrading enzyme genes, alkane 1-monooxygenase and catechol 1, 2-dioxygenase, increased significantly.

Enhancement of PAHs biodegradation in biosurfactant/phenol system by increasing the bioavailability of PAHs

The poor bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is the main limiting factor for their biodegradation in contaminated sites. The addition of biosurfactant is an effective method for enhancing the bioavailability of PAHs. Suitable low molecular weight (LMW) organic matters have been shown to increase the bioavailability of PAHs. Therefore, we investigated the effect of phenol, which often co-exists with PAHs, on the biodegradation of PAHs in biosurfactant solution. The results show that the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the biosurfactant decreased after phenol was added. The formation of mixed micelles resulted in enhancement of PAHs dissolution. The weight solubilization ratio (WSR) values of biosurfactant for Phe, Pyr and BaP in phenol solution are approximately 1.34, 1.40 and 1.67 times that of the control group, respectively. Phenol, therefore, can assist biosurfactant to increase the availability of PAHs by microbes. The bioavailability of PAHs in sludge increased from 27.7% to 43.1% after the biosurfactant was added, and reached a maximum of 49.2%, following the simultaneous addition of phenol and biosurfactant. Phenol also improved the degradation of PAHs by Stenotrophomonas sp. N5 in biosurfactant solution.

Remediation of soils contaminated by hydrophobic organic compounds: How to recover extracting agents from soil washing solutions?

A lot of soil (particularly, former industrial and military sites) has been contaminated by various highly toxic contaminants such as petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) or chlorinated solvents. Soil remediation is now required for their promotion into new industrial or real estate activities. Therefore, the soil washing (SW) process enhanced by the use of extracting agents (EAs) such as surfactants or cyclodextrins (CDs) has been developed for the removal of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) from contaminated soils. The use of extracting agents allows improving the transfer of HOCs from the soil-sorbed fraction to the washing solution. However, using large amount of extracting agents is also a critical drawback for cost-effectiveness of the SW process. The aim of this review is to examine how extracting agents might be recovered from SW solutions for reuse. Various separation processes are able to recover large amounts of extracting agents according to the physicochemical characteristics of target pollutants and extracting agents. However, an additional treatment step is required for the degradation of recovered pollutants. SW solutions may also undergo degradation processes such as advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) with in situ production of oxidants. Partial recovery of extracting agents can be achieved according to operating conditions and reaction kinetics between organic compounds and oxidant species. The suitability of each process is discussed according to the various physicochemical characteristics of SW solutions. A particular attention is paid to the anodic oxidation process, which allows either a selective degradation of the target pollutants or a complete removal of the organic load depending on the operating conditions.

Study on the preparation of the hierarchical porous CX-TiO2 composites and their selective degradation of PHE solubilized in soil washing eluent

A series of CX-TiO₂(Carbon Xerogel- TiO₂) composites with a hierarchical porous structure were obtained through the sol-gel method followed by drying and carbonization, and have been applied to treating solubilizing wastewater containing a high concentration of phenanthrene (PHE). The characterizations demonstrated that the CX-TiO₂ exhibits a hierarchical porous structure, with particles of carbon and P25 being uniformly in the matrix. Removal efficiency of CX-TiO₂ on PHE in soil washing eluent (SWE) were evaluated under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation or dark condition, and P25 was employed as the reference. The results revealed that CX-TiO₂(0.2) had the best removal effect on PHE, with the efficiency as high as 97.8% under UV illumination within 15 h. It demonstrated that in the process of PHE removal by CX-TiO₂ whether it was under UV illumination or not, the adsorption plays a dominant role in the early stage. The kinetic behavior of PHE adsorption was fitted using the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order, and Langmuir model and Freundlich models were applied to describe the PHE adsorption isotherms. The results indicating that it was a chemical adsorption process, which was influenced by the interaction between PHE and CX-TiO₂, and PHE is adsorbed on the interface of CX-TiO₂(0.2) in a single layer form, instead of agglomerating in the admicelle. A possible mechanism of removal of solubilized PHE in SWE was speculated, in which both hierarchical porous structure and appropriate micropores size of CX-TiO₂ were indispensable to the selective adsorption and degradation of PHE. Recycling performance certificated that the selective removal efficiency of PHE could still reach 82.09% after five recycles. Thus the excellent performance testified that the CX-TiO₂ have great potential in treating SWE containing solubilized PAHs.

Studying the toxicity of SLEnS-LAS micelles to collembolans and plants: Influence of ethylene oxide units in the head groups

Mixed micelles of linear alkylbenzene sulfonic acid (LAS) and ether sulfate-based surfactants (SLE_nS) can be added in household products and cleaning agents. SLE_nS with higher ethylene oxide (EO) units in the head groups have economic and environmental advantages. This work aims to assess the influence of the number of EO units in the ecotoxicity of seven variants of SLE_nS-LAS micelles (0-50 EO units) in soils. Ecotoxicological tests were carried out to assess emergence and growth of four plants species and reproduction of collembolans. Most of the variants inhibited plants growth at the highest concentrations (1237.5 μg SLE_nS kg^-1 of soil_dw). For reproduction, lower number of EO units resulted in EC₅₀ from 924.2 (95 % CL: 760.7-1063.4) to 963.2 (95 % CL: 676.9-1249.6) μg SLE_nS kg^-1 of soil_dw, whereas for higher number of EO units (50 and 30) no inhibition was reported. Based on these results, we suggest that a higher number of EO units contribute to less hazardous formulations, confirming that different designs of surfactants may contribute to changes in the responses of terrestrial organisms. Therefore, we demonstrate that standardized ecotoxicological assays may contribute to more sustainable and effective formulations, when used upstream, prior to manufacture and marketing.

Anodic oxidation of surfactants and organic compounds entrapped in micelles - Selective degradation mechanisms and soil washing solution reuse

Formation of micelles at high surfactant concentration strongly modifies organic pollutant oxidation mechanisms and kinetics during anodic oxidation (AO) using boron doped diamond (BDD) anode. Results presented and discussed in this study emphasized the following mechanisms: (i) micelles act as a protective environment and reduce the availability of target molecules towards BDD(^•OH); (ii) the use of low current density strongly reduces micelle degradation kinetics due to both steric hindrance phenomenon for oxidation of micelles at the BDD surface and decrease of mediated oxidation in the bulk; (iii) compounds solubilized in surfactant-containing solutions can be either oxidized after degradation of the protective environment formed by micelles or if they are present as free extra-micellar compounds. Therefore, selective degradation of organic compounds entrapped in micelles can be achieved by using low current density and high surfactant concentration. In fact, these operating conditions strongly hinder micelle oxidation, while free (extra-micellar) compounds can still be oxidized. Then, the remaining entrapped compounds can also be continuously released in the aqueous phase, according to the micellar/aqueous phase partitioning coefficient (K_m). These results have been applied for the treatment of a real polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-containing soil washing (SW) solution. After 23 h of treatment at 2.1 mA cm^-2, 83% of phenanthrene, 90% of anthracene, 77% of pyrene and 75% of fluoranthene were degraded and the treated SW solution was reused for an additional SW step with only 5% lower extraction capacity than a fresh TW80 solution. A comparative study highlighted the superiority of this treatment strategy, compared to the use of activated carbon for selective adsorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and SW solution reuse.