Air sparging, also known as ''in situ'' air stripping and ''in situ'' volatilization is an ''in situ'' remediation technique, used for the treatment of saturated

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

s and

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

contaminated by

volatile organic compound Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. They are common and exist in a variety of settings and products, not limited to Indoor mold, house mold, Upholstery, upholstered furnitur ...

s (VOCs) like

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

hydrocarbons In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic; their odor is usually faint, and may b ...

, a widespread problem for the ground water and

soil health Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong ...

. Vapor extraction has become a very successful and practical method of VOC remediation. In saturated zone remediation, air sparging refers to the injection of a hydrocarbon-free gaseous medium into the ground where contamination has been found. When it comes to situ air sparging it became an intricate phase process that was proven to be successful in Europe since the 1980s. Currently, there have been further developments into bettering the engineering design and process of air sparging.

Mechanism

Air sparging is a subsurface contaminant remediation technique that involves the injection of pressurized air into contaminated ground water causing hydrocarbons to change state from dissolved to

vapor In physics, a vapor (American English) or vapour (Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical temperature,R ...

state. The air is then sent to the vacuum extraction systems to remove the contaminants. The extracted air or "off vapors" are treated to remove any toxic contaminants.

Methods and treatment

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) involves the use of multiple air injection points and multiple soil vapor extraction points that can be installed in contaminated soils to extract vapor phase contaminants above the water table. Contamination must be at least deep beneath the ground surface in order for the system to be effective. A blower is attached to wells, usually through a manifold, below the water table creating pressure. The pressurized air forms small bubbles that travel through the contamination in and above water column. The bubbles of air volatilize contaminants and carry them to the unsaturated soils above. Vacuum points are installed in the unsaturated soils above the saturated zone. The vacuum points extract the vapors through to a soil vapor extraction system. In order for the vacuum to avoid pulling the air from the surface, the ground has to be covered with a tarp or other method of sealing out surface air. Surface air intrusion into the system reduces efficiency and can reduce the accuracy of system metrics. The tarp is used to stop vapors from breakthrough to the surface above. The air sparging system treats the off-gases (referred as contaminated vapors and extracted air). The vapor is treated with granulated

activated carbon Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal, is a form of carbon commonly used to filter contaminants from water and air, among many other uses. It is processed (activated) to have small, low-volume pores that greatly increase the surface ar ...

prior to release to the atmosphere.

Applicability

Air sparging is generally applied for commercial usage. Air sparging contaminant groups are VOCs and fuels found in groundwater. Air sparging is usually applied to the lighter gasoline constituents such as

benzene Benzene is an Organic compound, organic chemical compound with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar hexagonal Ring (chemistry), ring with one hyd ...

, ethylbenzene,

toluene Toluene (), also known as toluol (), is a substituted aromatic hydrocarbon with the chemical formula , often abbreviated as , where Ph stands for the phenyl group. It is a colorless, water Water is an inorganic compound with the c ...

, and xylene. This method is typically not applied on the heavier gasoline products such as

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

and

diesel fuel Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...

s. The usage of air sparging is commonly applied when cleaning up contaminated water under buildings and obstacles to prevent the further contamination of that water source. The usage of air sparging and SVE is safe when properly conducted. This makes sure only clean air that meets a certain quality standard is released, therefore it does not pose a threat when the proper sample method is done to make sure that hazardous gases do not exit into the atmosphere. Arsenic-contaminated groundwater can be treated by air sparging to remove a certain percentage of arsenic in a solution of iron and arsenic at a molar ratio of 2. Treatment using air sparging is beneficial as groundwater contains high amounts of dissolved iron, which contains the theoretical capacity for the treatment.

Mechanism

Methods and treatment

Applicability

References

Further reading