Overestimate of remediation efficiency due to residual sodium persulfate in PAHs contaminated soil and a solution

Abstract

Oxidation remediation is a commonly used technology for PAHs contaminated soil presently, but the overestimate of efficiency due to ongoing remediation by residual oxidants during extraction and testing has not been paid enough attention. In this study, persulfate was activated by Fe(II) to investigate the effects of residual oxidants on PAHs removal during detection process and the elimination effects of adding Na₂SO₃ and extending sampling time on residual oxidants. Results verified that the residual oxidants removed PAHs in extraction process, making the results lower than the actual values: the detection recovery rate η of ∑PAHs and 3-6 ring PAHs ranged from 24.3% (25% Na₂S₂O₈ treatment) to 87.4% (5% Na₂S₂O₈+4/4Fe²⁺ treatment), 20.1%-99.0%, 28.9%-87.9%, 20.8%-89.4%, and 18.6%-76.9%, respectively. After adding Na₂SO₃, the accuracy of detection results increased significantly: the η of ∑PAHs and 3-6 ring PAHs increased to 64.1%-96.5%, 58.8%-95.5%, 73.8%-114.4%, 60.6%-95.6%, and 45.4%-77.1%, respectively. After 49 days of adding oxidants, residual oxidants had no considerable effect on the detection of PAHs, indicating it was appropriate to start soil remediation verification sampling49 days after the remediation was completed. The observed results will help scientific evaluation of the remediation effects of chemical oxidation on organic contaminated soil.

Keywords: Persulfate activation; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Residual oxidant removal; Soil remediation.