Phenanthrene removal from soil slurries with surfactant-treated oxides

A soil-slurry washing technique to decontaminate soils containing low-solubility nonionic organic pollutants was investigated, using phenanthrene as a model pollutant. The technique is based on first transferring the sorbed phenanthrene from the soil to anionic surfactant-coated oxide particles, and then separating these anionic surfactant-coated oxide particles with the sorbed phenanthrene from the soil slurry via a magnetic separation technique. The decontamination of two soils with different particle sizes and soil organic matter content was investigated. The proposed soil-slurry washing technique was effective in removing a strongly sorbing nonionic organic contaminant from soil slurries. Various operational scenarios of multistage soil-slurry reactors were evaluated with a mathematical model.