Tiberiu Apostol

Experimental Research Regarding the Application of Electro-Flushing Method on Diesel Contaminated Soils

Abstract In 2011, as a result of the inventory conducted at the national level, The Ministry Of Environment concluded that the largest number of contaminated sites with hydrocarbons are due to the petroleum products distribution (nearly 400 sites), followed by the hydrocarbons extraction (about 310 sites). So, soil contamination with liquid petroleum products resulting from many industrial activities became an important issue of environment protection. Unfortunately not all local governments have provided a list of contaminated sites, which means that there is a possibility to have a bigger problem at the national level. All these surfaces are in a continuous growth due to industrial and social development and that is why it is necessary to study and improve decontamination methods of contaminated sites in order to regain one of our most important resources - the soil. In this paper, the main results obtained during a research that aimed to study two different treatment methods of contaminated soil in a combined solution, are presented. The newly developed method is called electro-flushing. Results proved that combining the two nominated methods could be a viable solution for treating diesel polluted soil with better performances comparing with using them separately. Concerning the electrochemical treatment of diesel contaminated soils an efficiency of 35-40 % could be obtained after 28 days; while using the flushing method up to 15-20% efficiency could be reached. On the other hand, if we combine these two methods, we can reach remediation efficiency up to 50%. So, the main interesting results of the present research is given by the fact that combining two known remediation methods, better performances could be achieved.