Removal of Sorbed Naphthalene from Soils Using Nonionic Surfactant

The environmental behaviors of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are mainly governed by their solubility and partitioning properties on soil media in a subsurface system. In surfactant-enhanced remediation (SER) systems, surfactant plays a critical role in remediation. In this study, sorptive behaviors and partitioning of naphthalene in soils in the presence of surfactants were investigated. Silica and kaolin with low organic carbon contents and a natural soil with relatively higher organic carbon content were used as model sorbents. A nonionic surfactant, Triton X-100, was used to enhance dissolution of naphthalene. Sorption kinetics of naphthalene onto silica, kaolin and natural soil were investigated and analyzed using several kinetic models. The two compartment first-order kinetic model (TCFOKM) was fitted better than the other models. From the results of TCFOKM, the fast sorption coefficient of naphthalene ( $k_1$ ) was in the order of silica > kaolin > natural soil, whereas the slow sorbing fraction ( $k_2$ ) was in the reverse order. Sorption isotherms of naphthalene were linear with organic carbon content ( $f_{oc}$ ) in soils, while those of Triton X-100 were nonlinear and correlated with CEC and BET surface area. Sorption of Triton X-100 was higher than that of naphthalene in all soils. The effectiveness of a SER system depends on the distribution coefficient ( $K_D$ ) of naphthalene between mobile and immobile phases. In surfactant-sorbed soils, naphthalene was adsorbed onto the soil surface and also partitioned onto the sorbed surfactant. The partition coefficient ( $K_D$ ) of naphthalene increased with surfactant concentration. However, the $K_D$ decreased as the surfactant concentration increased above CMC in all soils. This indicates that naphthalene was partitioned competitively onto both sorbed surfactants (immobile phase) and micelles (mobile phase). For the mineral soils such as silica and kaolin, naphthalene removal by mobile phase would be better than that by immobile phase because the distribution of naphthalene onto the micelles ( $K_{mic}$ ) increased with the nonionic surfactant concentration (Triton X-100). For the natural soil with relatively higher organic carbon content, however, the naphthalene removal by immobile phase would be better than that by mobile phase, because a high amount of Triton X-100 could be sorbed onto the natural soil and the sorbed surfactant also could sorb the relatively higher amount of naphthalene.