An Investigation of the Efficiency of a Non-Ionic Surfactant to Remove Flourene and Phenanthrene from Crude Oil Contaminated Soil

This paper presents an evaluation of the ability of a non-ionic surfactant solution (Triton X100) for removal of Flourene, Phenanthrene from soil artificially contaminated with crude oil supplied from Tehran refinery. PAHs fractions were gained in accord to MOOPAM standard and analyzed by GC-FID. The effects of mixing time, surfactant solution concentration and volume were evaluated at 4 levels. Results show that in volume 100 cc the least removal efficiencies were achieved for both components (19.2 and 17.7 for Flourene and Phenanthrene, respectively). And the highest efficiencies (60.5 and 52.7 for Flourene and Phenanthrene, respectively) were gained at 4 g/l surfactant solution concentration. The experimental results were obtained for the optimum condition when the surfactant solution volume and concentration were 400 ml and 2 g/l, respectively with one hour mixing time.