WATER AIR AND SOIL POLLUTION, cilt.231, sa.7, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
The contaminated Kaynaklar soil containing high level of diesel (100,000 mg/kg dw) was treated in slurry systems with solid-to-liquid ratios (S/L) of 1/5, 1/10, and 1/20 to describe the performance of physical treatment. The soil microbial mass was inhibited by using mercury chloride and autoclaving prior to the diesel spiking in order to eliminate any bacterial degradation of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) and has been treated in the reactor systems for 8 h. The removal performance of PAHs in soil slurry systems was evaluated according to the number of benzene rings: 3, 4, and 5and 6 ring PAHs. The experimental results showed that PAH treatment efficiency sharply decreases in slurry soils with increasing number of benzene rings; maximum treatment efficiencies in soil were 82%, 56%, and 42% for 3 ring (ACY), 4 ring (PY), and 5 and 6 ring (BbF) PAHs, respectively. In addition, a significant correlation between the PAH removal efficiencies and their vapor pressures has found. The impact of solid-to-liquid ratio on slurry system performance was found negligible; therefore, higher solid-to-liquid ratios are recommendable to be applied on the contaminated sites to remove high concentrations of PAHs from soil for reducing the investment and operational costs. The soil used in this study has relatively large specific surface area and considerable amount of clay. The removal performance of slurry systems may be elevated with sandy soils containing high concentrations of PAHs, where can be faced at the seashores due to the off shore oil spills.