Recovering phenanthrene from spiked sand by a combined remediation process of micellar solubilization and cloud-point extraction

A remediation process, which combines the micellar solubilization and the cloud-point extraction technique by a nonionic surfactant Tergitol 15-S-7, was used to decontaminate phenanthrene, as a model hydrophobic pollutant, from spiked sand samples. A first-order kinetics model was employed to describe the solubilization behavior of phenanthrene well. It was observed that presence of surfactant decreased the mass-transfer coefficient of phenanthrene from sand surface to surfactant solutions, however, higher solubilization rate was obtained due to enhanced aqueous solubility and, thus, the larger driving force resulted from solublization. Cloud-point extraction was used to concentrate the phenanthrene solubilized in the washing solutions in an attempt to minimize the amount of wastewater. The extraction was carried out, subsequently, at room temperature by adding sodium sulfate to suppress the cloud-point low enough to induce phase-separation of the surfactant-rich phase with a minimal phase volume from the coexisting water phase. Recoveries higher than 93% were achieved in the combined process of micellar solubilization and cloud-point extraction on ultimate removal of immobilized phenanthrene sorbed on sands. The results showed that this combined process is efficient in recovering phenanthrene sorbed and immobilized on sands from contaminated sites, and produces only minimal amount of wastewater, i.e. less than 3% of its original volume.