Estimation of Pollutant Partition in Sandy Soils with Different Water Contents

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2010

Authors

José Tomás Albergaria (Author) FEUP; Maria da Conceição M. Alvim-Ferraz (Author) FEUP; Maria Cristina F. Delerue-Matos (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Vol. 171 No. 1-4

Pages: 171-180

ISSN: 0167-6369

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Science

Scopus

COMPENDEX

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Environmental engineering

CORDIS: Technological sciences

Other information

Abstract (EN): The objectives of this work were: (1) to identify an isotherm model to relate the contaminant contents in the gas phase with those in the solid and non-aqueous liquid phases; (2) to develop a methodology for the estimation of the contaminant distribution in the different phases of the soil; and (3) to evaluate the influence of soil water content on the contaminant distribution in soil. For sandy soils with negligible contents of clay and natural organic matter, contaminated with benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, trichloroethylene (TCE), and perchloroethylene (PCE), it was concluded that: (1) Freundlich’s model showed to be adequate to relate the contaminant contents in the gas phase with those in the solid and non-aqueous liquid phases; (2) the distribution of the contaminants in the different phases present in the soil could be estimated with differences lower than 10% for 83% of the cases; and (3) an increase of the soil water content led to a decrease of the amount of contaminant in the solid and non-aqueous liquid phases, increasing the amount in the other phases.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific