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The principle and effect of transfer agent for the removal of PCE during in situ chemical oxidation

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Abstract

Viscosity remedial technology, which uses a water-soluble polymer mixed with remedial fluids, has been introduced in recent years to improve the removal efficacy of perchloroethylene/tetrachloroethylene (PCE) by improving oxidant coverage (i.e. sweep efficiency). Xanthan gum and hydrolysed polyacrylamide (HPAM) are relatively stable with time and temperature and possess salt and oxidation resistance, indicating that they may be good flooding agents (the former is better than the latter in this work). In this work, we quantified the polymer directly improved oxidation of PCE during transport by using a two-dimensional flow tank. Using a low pore volume (≤3.0), the removal rate of the PCE increased with the polymer concentration before stabilizing at approximately 93.00 and 88.30% for xanthan and HPAM, respectively. In this work, over 80% of PCE was removed via less than 3.0 PV of the SDS solution, whereas complete removal (100%) was achieved with less than 3.0 PV of SDS foam. Furthermore, the new experimental discoveries demonstrate that xanthan is better than HPAM and SDS foam is a better remediation agent than the SDS solution for removing PCE.

(Reaction device, A - inlet device (pump 1#), B - 2D tank, C - outflow device (pump 2#), D - data recording and processing device, E - microscopic expression, E (a) - KMnO4 flushing, E (b) - polymer solution flushing).

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41572219).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Water and Sediment Sciences of Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yunsong Liu, Jiajun Chen, Qingwei Wang, Lanxiang Shi & Yandan Shi

Authors
  1. Yunsong Liu
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  2. Jiajun Chen
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  3. Qingwei Wang
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  4. Lanxiang Shi
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  5. Yandan Shi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiajun Chen.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

Highlights

1. Xanthan gum has better tolerance for monovalent salts (e.g. Na+, K+), oxidants and groundwater (GW) than hydrolysed polyacrylamide (HPAM).

2. Using Xanthan as a transfer agent improved the removal rate of PCE via the theory of increasing sweep efficiency.

3. We believe this work to be pioneering research on the removal rate of PCE using HPAM and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) foam and the comparison of polymer and SDS solutions and SDS foam removal of PCE.

4. The SDS foam surface active agent is a promising option for removing PCE, and the effect is even better than that of the corresponding SDS solution.

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Liu, Y., Chen, J., Wang, Q. et al. The principle and effect of transfer agent for the removal of PCE during in situ chemical oxidation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 21011–21023 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9411-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9411-9

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