Combined Chemical-Biological Treatment of Effluents from Soil Remediation Processes by Surfactants Solutions Flushing

In recent years combined chemical-biological wastewater treatment processes have received increasing interest. In the present study wastewater from soil remediation processes were treated by means of 1-step processes like Fenton, aerobic degradation and 2-steps combined method. The effluents resulting from soil remediation processes consist of high surfactant concentration solutions, mobilized oils and oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions. The effectiveness of wastewater treatment was evaluated by COD reduction and surfactant removal. The application of Fenton process alone showed around 80% of COD and surfactant removal, and in case of aerobic process only 60% of COD and 50% of surfactant removal was accomplished. However, the maximum COD reduction and surfactant removal from wastewater samples, above 90%, was obtained in aerobic degradation with Fenton process as pretreatment. Thus, the Fenton process could be effectively applied as a pretreatment step to improve the reduction of both COD and surfactant from wastewater resulting from soil remediation.