Treatment of heavy petroleum hydrocarbons polluted soil leachates by ultrafiltration and oxidation for surfactant recovery

Abstract Surfactant technology can improve the remediation of soils polluted by semivolatile hydrophobic contaminants, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), by enhancing their solubility in water. However, the recovery of surfactant from soil-leachates is critical for the economic feasibility of this treatment technology. To tackle this issue, ultrafiltration (UF) and its combination with permanganate, is reported for the selective recovery of surfactant from wastewater contaminated by a complex mixture of heavy hydrocarbons mainly composed of PAHs. The overall performance of the process including the successive steps of contaminant mobilization in leachates and surfactant recovery …