Sonochemical treatment of simulated soil contaminated with diesel

Sonochemical treatment has previously been shown to be an effective method to remediate soils contaminated with hydrocarbons. Ultrasonically induced d esorption of the contaminants is based on the mechanisms of physical breaka ge of bonds by hot spots, quartz particle surface impingement, the fragment ation of long-chain hydrocarbons by microjets, as well as microstreaming ge nerated by acoustic vortices in the media pores. In this investigation the effect of factors such as: slurry concentration; ultrasonic power intensity ; duration of irradiation; particle size; diesel content; slurry pH; salini ty; and surfactant concentrations on the desorption of diesel from quartz, is considered. A multistage sonochemical treatment process for the remediat ion of sand contaminated with diesel is consequently proposed and it is sho wn that this approach is more effective than high-speed mechanical agitatio n. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.