Abstract : In this paper, four treatment techniques commonly applied to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
removal from soil are compared in column experiments with pure sand containing a residual Light Non-
Aqueous Phase Liquid (L-NAPL) contamination. Oxidation is tested through the injection of Fenton reagent,
with persulfate, and combined with sparging with the injection of ozone. Surfactant treatment
was conducted at low flow rates with Tween®80. Sparging was conducted by air injection but at a low
flow rate of 1 mL min1. Finally several columns were thermally treated at a temperature of 80 C. The
results showed high removal (>90%) for all techniques used, although only thermal treatment on BTEX
(Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes) reached 100% efficiency. The main limiting factors of each
technique were: (i) for oxidation, the solubility of the substance limited the removal; (ii) for surfactant
both the solubility in the surfactant and the type of surfactant are important; (iii) for sparging, the main
factors are contaminant vapor pressure and porous media grain size; (iv) for thermal treatment, the
limitation arises from the contaminant vapor pressure and the medium hydraulic conductivity. A
comparison with literature data shows that the results are consistent with most of the studies conducted
on one technique.
