Remediation Efficiency and Soil Properties of TCE-Contaminated Soil Treated by Thermal Conduction Heating Coupled with Persulfate Oxidation

Less attention was paid to the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contaminated soil treated by thermal conduction heating (TCH) coupled with chemical oxidization. In this study, the lab-scale remediation experiments of trichloroethylene (TCE)-contaminated soil by TCH and TCH coupled with persulfate (TCH + PS) were performed to explore the influences of PS usage, temperature, reaction time, and the variation of soil properties. TCE was removed from contaminated soils using TCH with a temperature lower than boiling point, and the removal ratio of TCE reached 78.21% with a reaction time of 6h at 60 degrees C. In the TCH + PS treatments, the removal ratio increased to 87.60 similar to 99.50% when the PS dosage was increased from 7.0 mmol/kg to 17.5 mmol/kg at 60 degrees C. However, the usage efficiency of PS had no positive relationship with oxidant usage and temperature. The treatment with 14 mmol/kg PS after 3h at 50 degrees C had the highest PS usage ratio of 3.05. In addition, soil pH and soil organic matter (SOM) did not decrease significantly in the TCH-only treatment, while the content of SOM declined by almost 50% after the TCH + PS treatment. Overall, it was concluded that TCH + PS achieved higher removal efficiency, whereas TCH had less disturbance on soil pH and SOM. As such, the applicability of TCH-only or TCH + PS treatments is site-specific.