Sorption of hydrophobic organic compounds to residual diesel oil in aquifer materials

Conference · Fri Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:126325

Hudson, R J; Mills, G L ^[1]; Herbert, B E ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Georgia, Aiken, SC (United States)
2. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)

The sorptive properties of weathered diesel oil were investigated by conducting miscible displacement experiments with three hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs), acenapthene, fluorene, and dibenzothiophene, as tracers in columns containing aquifer materials low in natural organic carbon (f{sub oc}=0.0002) and contaminated with 0 to 0.02% w/w of a moderately weathered diesel oil. Weathered diesel oil behaved as a highly effective sorptive phase, retarding the transport of HOCs through aquifer materials. A comparison between sorption coefficients (K) for uncontaminated and oil-contaminated aquifer material showed that HOC sorption increased from 2 to 10 times linearly with diesel oil content over aquifer material alone. By comparing oil-water sorption coefficients (K{sub oil}) to literature carbon-normalized sorption coefficients (K{sub oc}), weathered diesel oil was about 3 times more effective as a sorptive phase than natural organic carbon per unit mass. The octanol-water partition coefficients (K{sub ow}) for the three solutes were found to be reasonable estimates of K{sub oil} values. Decreased HOC mobility from sorption to weathered diesel oil will affect remediation strategies, such as pump and treat systems, vacuum extraction systems, and mathematical transport models based on f{sub oc} and literature K{sub oc} values.

• OSTI ID: 126325
• Report Number(s): CONF-950402--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACENAPHTHENE
CARBON
FLUORENE
GROUND WATER
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POLYCYCLIC SULFUR HETEROCYCLES
REMEDIAL ACTION
SOLUTES
SORPTION
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES