Movement and remediation of trichloroethylene in a saturated, heterogeneous porous medium: 2. Pump-and-treat and surfactant flushing

An intermediate-scale flow cell experiment was conducted to remove a liquid trichloroethylene (TCE) spill from a saturated, heterogeneous porous medium using pump-and-treat (P&T) as well as surfactant flushing (SF) techniques. Dissolved TCE concentrations were measured at 20 locations, while fluid saturations were obtained with a dual-energy gamma scanner. The behavior of the TCE spill has been described by Oostrom et al. (1998b) [Oostrom, M., Hofstee, C., Walker, R.C., Dane, J.H., 1998b. Movement and remediation of TCE in a saturated heterogeneous porous medium: 1. Spill behavior and initial dissolution, this issue.]. A total of six alternating P&T and SF periods were used to remediate the flow cell. A two-well system, consisting of an injection and an extraction well, was used during the first five remediation periods. For the last SF period, a three-well system was employed with two injection wells and one extraction well. During the first P&T period, most entrapped TCE was removed, but TCE saturations in a substantial pool on top of a fine-grained sand layer were largely unaffected. During the first SF period, a dense plume was formed containing solubilized TCE which partially sank into the fine-grained sand. In addition, unstable fingers developed below the liquid TCE in the pool. In several samples, small TCE droplets were found, indicating mobilization of TCE. Most of the samples with concentrations larger than 5000 ppm had a milky, emulsion-like appearance. The SF considerably reduced the amount of TCE in the pool on top of the fine-grained sand. During the second P&T period, plume sinking and instabilities were not observed. After starting the second SF period, some unstable fingering and plume sinking resumed, starting at the upstream end of the TCE in the pool. The saturation distribution obtained after the second SF period was quite similar to the one obtained after the first SF period, indicating that additional removal of TCE through SF was difficult as a result of the limited accessibility of the TCE in the pool. A gamma scan, obtained after three weeks of pumping using the three-well configuration, shows that all the liquid TCE had been removed from the coarse-grained sand. Computations based on extraction rates and measured TCE concentrations show that only about 60% of the injected TCE was removed from the cell during the experiment. Part of the missing 40% might have moved downwards into the fine-grained sand as a result of pure phase mobilization. The experimental results suggest that besides the positive effects of solubilization, possible detrimental processes such as pure phase mobilization and dense aqueous-phase plume behavior should be considered during SF.