AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 6 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.3233/AJW-2009-6_1_04
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Modelling Efficacy of Soil Vapour Extraction (SVE) in Waste Sites Polluted by Hydrocarbons: A Case Study

Claudia Cherubini1* Costantino Masciopinto2
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1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Bari via Orabona, 13, 70100, Bari, Italy
2 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Ricerca Sulle Acque, Reparto di Chimica e Tecnologia delle acque, via Francesco De Blasio, 5, 70123 Bari (Italy)
AJWEP 2009, 6(1), 29–41; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-2009-6_1_04
Submitted: 14 May 2008 | Accepted: 10 September 2008 | Published: 1 January 2009
© 2009 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

The effectiveness of soil vapour extraction (SVE) in the remediation of a site polluted by hydrocarbons located in Southern Italy (Brindisi), has been tested by means of experimental data and a computational code. SVE is one of the most frequent techniques used for the remediation of vadose zones contaminated by hydrocarbons. In the case studied, actual BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes) and TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons) contamination have been considered. The application aimed to examine some technical and economic features of the SVE technique, as well as to point out the very important role of mathematical models in management of contaminated sites. The code simulation predicted both contaminant depletion trends and remediation times at polluted site. The simulation results pointed out different remediation performance for BTEX (more than 150 days) and TPH (more than 600 days) removal. The treatment costs of the simulated SVE “on site” technique resulted competitive with respect to the other “ex site” methods which can be carried out at the same contaminated area and should be encouraged by the local authorities.

Keywords
Contaminated sites remediation
unsaturated subsoil
multiphase flow and transport
soil vapour extraction
remediation time and costs
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing