Evaluation of soil vapor extraction and bioventing for a petroleum-contaminated shallow aquifer in Korea

The feasibility of soil vapor extraction and bioventing technologies was ex amined for a petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated site. The test site was hig hly contaminated with toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, due to leakage fro m petroleum storage tanks. Three respiration tests demonstrated that the te st site conditions were appropriate for application of air-based remediatio n technologies. The oxygen consumption rates ranged from 4.32 to 7.68 %-O-2 /day and biodegradation rates ranged from 2.72 to 4.84 mg/kg-day in respira tion tests. In a 120-day soil vapor extraction pilot test, high initial mas s removals (with tailing effects) were observed. As expected for the soil v apor extraction, the volatilization rate was much higher than the biodegrad ation rate. In a bioventing trial, the biodegradation effect was predominan t, but a tailing effect was not observed. From this study, the suggested se quence of remediation is to construct an integrated system of soil vapor ex traction and bioventing and initially operate the soil vapor extraction sys tem until the volatilization rate becomes smaller than the biodegradation r ate. After that, the system needs to be changed over to a bioventing mode. Field demonstration supports the feasibility of the proposed integrated sys tem.