KEROSENE CONTAMINATED SOIL REMOVAL BY NON-THERMAL ATMOSPHERIC PLASMA DISCHARGE

Abstract

The objective of the present work was to examine the applicability of a non-thermal atmospheric plasma discharge technique for the treatment of soils contaminated by hydrocarbon pollutants was investigated. A soil polluted by kerosene (74 mg.kg−1) was treated in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor at atmospheric pressure using air as sweep gas flow. The concentrations of kerosene components in the soil were determined by GC-FID analyses of soil extracts. The removal percentages varied from 25 to 88% for treatment times ranging from 4 to 12 minutes. During the soil treatment experiments, analyses of the exhaust gas phase were also performed. They showed that CO, CO2, and total hydrocarbons represented less than 8 % of carbon balance, indicating that the transfer of organic contaminants from solid phase to gas phase was negligible. Further analyses of soils showed finally that the decrease of kerosene was accompanied by the formation of new organic compounds in the soil in non negligible quantities, indicating that main mechanism could be the soft oxidation of kerosene constituents in the soil matrix.