Investigation of the performance of cosmetic surfactants for remediation of trichloroethene source zones

Trichloroethene is an important chlorinated solvent and has beed extensively detected in organic contaminated sites. TCE masses predominantly leak to the subsurface as DNAPL phase and resided in matrix or at the top of impermeable geological media as higher saturation (Pool). This situation enables long term source of contamination and leads to the contamination of groundwater resources. Chemical flushing with surfactant is one of the most used technologies to remediate DNAPL sources zones from the subsurface geological materials. The aim of this experimental study is to examine the performance of biological cosmetic surfactant rhamnolipid for the remediation of DNAPL souce zones. The objectives were examined by a series of 2-D tank experiments and silica sand and natural carbonate soils were used for the representation of 2 different geological media. Tank experiments showed that, DNAPL TCE source zones in different distribution were mostly remediated by fhamnolipid surfactant but TCE concentration exhibited non ideal behavior due to the heterogeneous distribution of DNAPL TCE sources. In early stages of surfactant flushing, TCE masses were dissolved from the hydraulically zones (Matrix) and in later stages, TCE masses were dissolved from the low-hydraulically zones (Pools). Results indicated that DNAPL TCE distribution and saturation and surfactant concentration had significant impact on remediation efficacy. As a result, outcomes from this study will help in filling gaps in the national and international literature and will also assist conducting the bench and field scale studies. Keywords: DNAPL, Cosmetic, Rhamnolipid, Trichloroethene, Surfactant