A Novel Combination of Surfactant Addition and Persulfate-assisted Electrokinetic Oxidation for Remediation of Pyrene-Contaminated Soil

Effect of surfactant addition on persulfate-assisted electrokinetic remediation of pyrene-spiked soil was studied. The influence of effective factors including voltage, surfactant addition, moisture content, and persulfate concentration on the removal of initial pyrene concentration of 200 mg kg(-1) were investigated. A complete pyrene removal was observed for voltage of 1 V cm(-1), saturated conditions, Tween 80 concentration of 20 mL kg(-1), and persulfate concentration of 100 mg kg(-1) after 24 h, corresponding to pyrene mineralization of 61 %, based on TPH analysis. The experimental results were best fitted with pseudo-first-order kinetic model with correlation coefficient of 0.968 and rate constant of 0.191 min(-1). The main intermediates of pyrene degradation were benzene o-toluic acid, acetic, azulene, naphthalene and decanoic acid. Finally, an unwashed hydrocarbon-contaminated soil was subjected to persulfate-assisted electrokinetic remediation, and a TPH removal of 38 % was observed for the initial TPH content of 912 mg kg(-1), under the selected conditions.