Use of Surfactants to Enhance the Removal of PAHs from Soil

J.-C. Thoisy-Dur (1) , Rachel Rama (1) , Christian Mougin (1) , Veronique Chaplain (1)

1 UPMC - Unité de recherche Phytopharmacie et Médiateurs Chimiques

The efficiency of soil remediation is often limited by the low aqueous solubility of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, PAHs. Surfactants can then be used to enhance the removal of PAHs from soils. The dissolution of pure solid deposit of benzo(a)pyrene, B(a)P, has shown that cationic surfactants are the most efficient to increase the aqueous solubility of B(a)P, when compared to neutral or anionic surfactants. In this paper we compare by using soil suspension washings, the efficiency of two surfactants (i) a cationic surfactant, the benzyldimethyl dodecylammonium bromide, BDDA, and (ii) a neutral one, the t-octylphenoxypolyethoxy ethanol, triton X-100. The losses of surfactant, by adsorption on soil or precipitation, were measured together with the release of B(a)P, chosen as a model molecule, representative of all the PAHs. The efficiency of surfactants used in blend was then compared to the efficiency of surfactants alone.

Mots clés: soil; PAHs; surfactant

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

J.-C. Thoisy-Dur, Rachel Rama, Christian Mougin, Veronique Chaplain. Use of Surfactants to Enhance the Removal of PAHs from Soil. Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds, 2000, 20 (1-4), pp.143-154. ⟨10.1080/10406630008034781⟩. ⟨hal-01607767⟩