Effectiveness of Air Sparging Technology in Remediation of Gaza Coastal Aquifer from Gasoline Products

Said Ghabayen, Mazen Abualtayef, Fahid Rabah, Dalia Matter, Dana Mohsen, Intimaa Elmasri

Environmental Engineering Department, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine.

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2013.45053                

Abstract

Groundwater contamination becomes a great concern in many countries. One of the most important pollutants is hydrocarbons. Sources of Hydrocarbons pollutants in Gazacan be a result of accidental spills of petroleum products on the surface and uncontrolled disposal of wastewater. One of the common technologies for groundwater aquifer remediation from hydrocarbons is known as air sparging. In this study, a120 cm×100 cm×80 cmlaboratory scale aquifer model was implemented in order to investigate the effectiveness of air sparging technology in removal of petroleum products from contaminated site. Four pilot scale wells were installed at different depths and different spatial distribution. The central well was used for injecting air and the surrounding three wells were used for monitoring. The contaminated water and soil were tested for total organic carbon, lead, dissolved Oxygen and pH; one time before the start of treatment and four times through the treatment process. Total organic carbon in water and soil before air injection were 980 ppm and 0.08775 ppm, respectively. After air injection for three weeks (six hours daily) at flow rate range from 15 to20 L/min and at pressure range from 300 to 400 kPa, the concentration of pollutant was decreased to 4.0 ppm and 0.0 ppm in water and soil, respectively. Based on the results, it was clearly demonstrated that air sparging is a simple, effective and affordable technology that can be applied forGazaaquifer remediation in case of gasoline spill accidents.

Keywords

Hydrocarbons; Air Sparging; Gaza Aquifer; Monitoring; Total Organic Carbon

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Y. Shevah and M. Waldman, “In-Situ and Onsite Treatment of Groundwater,” Pure and Applied Chemistry, Vol. 67, No. 8-9, 1995, pp. 1549-1561. doi:10.1351/pac199567081549
[2]	E. K. Nyer and S. S. Suthersan, “Air Sparging: Savior of Groundwater Remediation or Just Blowing Bubbles in the Bath Tub,” Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1993, pp. 87-91. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6592.1993.tb00453.x
[3]	K. P. Chao, S. K. Ong and M. C. Huang, “Mass Transfer of VOCs in Laboratory-Scale Air Sparging Tank,” Journal of Hazardous Materials, Vol. 152, No. 3, 2008, pp. 1098-1107. doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.07.087
[4]	K. W. Rutherford and P. C. Johnson, “Effects of Process Control Changes on Aquifer Oxygenation Rates during in Situ Air Sparging in Homogeneous Aquifers,” Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, Vol. 16, No. 4, 1996, pp. 132-141. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6592.1996.tb01180.x
[5]	A. P. Mortensen, K. H. Jensen, T. O. Sonnenborg and E. Arvin, “Laboratory and Numerical Investigations of Air Sparging Using MTBE as a Tracer,” Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, Vol. 20, No. 4, 2000, pp. 87-95.
[6]	W. Ji, A. Dahmani, D. P. Ahlfeld, J. D. Lin and E. Hill, “Laboratory Study of Air Sparging: Air Flow Visualization,” Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1993, pp. 115-126. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6592.1993.tb00455.x
[7]	P. C. Johnson, A. Das and C. Bruce, “Effect of Flow Rate Changes and Pulsing on the Treatment of Source Zones by in Situ Air Sparging,” Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 33, No. 10, 1999, pp. 1726-1731. doi:10.1021/es9807688
[8]	J. W. Peterson, P. A. Lepczyk and K. L. Lake, “Effect of Sediment Size on Area of Influence during Groundwater Remediation by Air Sparging: A Laboratory Approach,” Environmental Geology, Vol. 38, No. 1, 1999, pp. 1-6.
[9]	K. R. Reddy, S. Kosgi and J. Zhou, “A Review of in Situ Air Sparging for the Remediation of VOC Contaminated Saturated Soils and Groundwater,” Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Materials, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1995, pp. 97-118. doi:10.1089/hwm.1995.12.97
[10]	P. D. Lundegard and G. Andersen, “Multiphase Numerical Simulation of Air Spaging Performance,” Groundwater, Vol. 34, No. 3, 1996, pp. 451-460. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6584.1996.tb02026.x
[11]	C. R. Plummer, J. D. Nelson and G. S. Zumwalt, “Horizontal and Vertical Well Comparison for in Situ Air sparging,” Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1997, pp. 91-96. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6592.1997.tb01188.x
[12]	G. L. Hein, J. S. Gierke, N. J. Hutzler and R. W. Falta, “Three-Dimensional Experimental Testing of a Two-Phase Flow-Modeling Approach for Air Sparging,” Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1997, pp. 222-230.
[13]	R. Semer, J. A. Adams and K. R. Reddy, “An Experimental Investigation of Air Flow Patterns in Saturated Soils during Air Sparging,” Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1998, pp. 59-75. doi:10.1023/A:1008884213834
[14]	K. R. Reddy and J. Adams, “Conceptual Modeling of Air Sparging for Ground Water Remediation,” Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Environmental Geotechnology and Global Sustainable Development, Hong Kong, June 2008.
[15]	L. Hu, X. Wu, Y. Liu, J. N. Meegoda and S. Gao, “Physical Modeling of Air Flow during Air Sparging Remediation,” Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 44, No. 10, 2010, pp. 3883-3888. doi:10.1021/es903853v
[16]	W. A. Jury, W. R. Gardner and W. H. Gardner, “Soil Physics,” 5th Edition, John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, 1991.