Research progress on the soil vapor extraction

Soil vapor extraction (SVE), the most common, efficient and economical means of remediation, is an in-situ remediation technique for removing volatile pollutants from unsaturated soil. The paper brie fly introduced the technological rationale and characteristics, summarized the theories and application research for SVE at home and abroad, and made the expectations and suggestions for the research on SVE. The international scholars have systematically researched the influence factors, remediation mechanism and numerical simulation of SVE. At present, SVE has been mostly integrated with other techniques to form enhanced SVE techniques, such as thermally enhanced SVE and AS-SVE (Air sparging- SVE), to be used for the field remediation widely. Compared with foreign countries, researches of Chinese scholars mainly focus on the laboratory research, especially on the influence factors, but rarely study the SVE model and the mass transfer mechanism of pollutant in SVE process. The SVE pilot studies are rare in China, and the field application has not been reported. In view of this situation, Chinese scholars in the future research can focus on the following aspects: (1) strengthening the research and systematized summary of SVE technical parameters and related knowledge;(2) strengthening the research on the mechanism and model of gas-phase mass transfer of pollutants in soil during SVE process;(3) strengthening the research on the enhanced SVE techniques and its application to actual site remediation.

Kinetic Mass Transfer Between Non-aqueous Phase Liquid and Gas During Soil Vapor Extraction

The mass transfer between non-aqueous phase liquid(NAPL) phase and soil gas phase in soil vapor extraction(SVE) process has been investigated by one-dimensional venting experiments. During quasi-steady volatilization of three single-component NAPLs in a sandy soil, constant initial lumped mass transfer coefficient (λgN,0) canbe obtained if the relative saturation (ξ) between NAPL phase and gas phase is higher than a critical value (ξc), andthe lumped mass transfer coefficient decreases with ξ when ξ＜ξc. It is also shown that the lumped mass transfercoefficient can be increased by blending porous micro-particles into the sandy soil because of the increasing of theinterfacial area.

Numerical model of compressible gas flow in soil pollution control

Based on the theory of fluid dynamics in porous media, a numerical model of gas flow in unsaturated zone is developed with the consideration of gas density change due to variation of air pressure. This model is characterized of its wider range of availability. The accuracy of this numerical model is analyzed through comparison with modeling results by previous model with presumption of little pressure variation and the validity of this numerical model is shown. Thus it provides basis for the designing and management of landfill gas control system or soil vapor extraction system in soil pollution control.

Influence factors and variation characteristics of water vapor absorption by soil in semi-arid region

The adsorption of water vapor by soil is one of the crucial contributors to non-rainfall water on land surface, particularly over semi-arid regions where its contribution can be equivalent to precipitation and can have a major impact on dry agriculture and the ecological environment in these regions. However, due to difficulties in the observation of the adsorption of water vapor,research in this area is limited. This study focused on establishing a method for estimating the quantitative observation of soil water vapor adsorption(WVA), and exploring the effects of meteorological elements(e.g., wind, temperature, and humidity) and soil environmental elements(e.g., soil temperature, soil moisture, and the available energy of soil) on WVA by soil over the semi-arid region, Dingxi, by combining use of the L-G large-scale weighing lysimeter and meteorological observation. In addition, this study also analyzed the diurnal and annual variations of WVA amount, frequency, and intensity by soil, how they changed with weather conditions, and the contribution of WVA by soil to the land surface water budget. Results showed that WVA by soil was co-affected by various meteorological and soil environmental elements, which were more likely to occur under conditions of relative humidity of 6.50% and the diurnal variation of relative humidity was large, inversion humidity, wind velocity of 3.4 m/s,lower soil water content, low surface temperature and slightly unstable atmospheric conditions. There was a negative feedback loop between soil moisture and the adsorption of water vapor, and, moreover, the diurnal and annual variations of WVA amount and frequency were evident—WVA by soil mainly occurred in the afternoon, and the annual peak appeared in December and the valley in June, with obvious regional characteristics. Furthermore, the contribution of WVA by soil to the land surface water budget obviously exceeded that of precipitation in the dry season.