Bituminous Soil Remediation in the Thermal Plasma Environment

Dovilė Gimžauskaitė (), Andrius Tamošiūnas, Justas Eimontas, Mindaugas Aikas, Rolandas Uscila and Vilma Snapkauskienė
Additional contact information
Dovilė Gimžauskaitė: Plasma Processing Laboratory, Lithuanian Energy Institute, Breslaujos Str. 3, LT44403 Kaunas, Lithuania
Andrius Tamošiūnas: Plasma Processing Laboratory, Lithuanian Energy Institute, Breslaujos Str. 3, LT44403 Kaunas, Lithuania
Justas Eimontas: Laboratory of Combustion Processes, Lithuanian Energy Institute, Breslaujos Str. 3, LT44403 Kaunas, Lithuania
Mindaugas Aikas: Plasma Processing Laboratory, Lithuanian Energy Institute, Breslaujos Str. 3, LT44403 Kaunas, Lithuania
Rolandas Uscila: Plasma Processing Laboratory, Lithuanian Energy Institute, Breslaujos Str. 3, LT44403 Kaunas, Lithuania
Vilma Snapkauskienė: Plasma Processing Laboratory, Lithuanian Energy Institute, Breslaujos Str. 3, LT44403 Kaunas, Lithuania

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Petroleum hydrocarbons like diesel, crude oil, and bitumen are persistent soil contaminants, necessitating urgent remediation due to their harmful effects on the soil and living organisms. Plasma remediation is a thermochemical method that is gaining attention as an alternative to soil de-pollution. Accordingly, the purpose of this experimental research is to investigate the feasibility of thermal air and water vapour plasmas to de-pollute bituminous soil. Pre-/post-remediation of soil and generated products, an analysis was carried out using SEM, EDX, TGA, and elemental and gas analysers. Despite the plasma type, the research showed that the bituminous soil’s surface morphology changed and resembled clean soil after the remediation. The EDX analysis revealed that the carbon content in the soil reduced from 70.14 wt.% to 7.70 wt.% and 5.74 wt.% and the sulphur concentration decreased from 2.64 wt.% to 0.70 wt.% and 0.74 wt.% after treatment in the environment of water vapour and air plasmas, respectively. The gas analysis revealed that bitumen was mainly decomposed into a synthesis gas (H 2 + CO) and CO 2 , with concentrations ranging from 8.67% to 13.66% and 10.89% to 12.82% when air and water vapour plasma were used. Thus, both thermal plasmas effectively remediated soil, with the bitumen concentration not being detected or below the laboratory’s finding limit (<0.089 g/kg).

Keywords: soil remediation; petroleum products; bitumen; thermal arc plasma; synthesis gas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4855/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4855/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4855-:d:1410104

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().