Surfactant selections for subsurface remediation of petroleum wastes
- Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); and others
Laboratory batch and column studies were conducted by using different surfactant/cosurfactant mixtures for petroleum wastes (i.e., jet fuels, VOCs) obtained from a field site. Solubility enhancements were three to four orders of magnitude relative to water alone via solubilization. Middle phase microemulsions (microemulsification) outperformed solubilization by an additional one to two orders of magnitude under similar conditions. Empirical equations from enhanced oil recovery literature were used to predict the optimal formulations for the middle phase microemulsion. High performance surfactants (alkyl diphenyloxide disulfonates) were less susceptibility to losses (precipitation and sorption) than other ionic and nortionic surfactants while effectively solubilizing petroleum wastes. However, the high performance surfactant alone appeared to be too hydrophilic to form the middle phase microemulsion. Scaleup of these results for two ongoing field tests of petroleum contamination will also be presented.
- OSTI ID:
- 370276
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960376--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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