Foam placement for soil remediation
Henri Bertin A C , Estefania Del Campo Estrada A and Olivier Atteia BA Institut de Mécanique et d’Ingénierie (I2M), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Bordeaux, France.
B Géoressources et Environnement-ENSEGID, Bordeaux INP, France.
C Corresponding author. Email: henri.bertin@u-bordeaux.fr
Environmental Chemistry 14(5) 338-343 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN17003
Submitted: 4 January 2017 Accepted: 6 June 2017 Published: 28 June 2017
Environmental context. Soil pollution is an important concern and remediation techniques, especially in situ techniques, should be studied. We investigate a new technique based on foam generation and placement inside the porous soil to improve the pollutant extraction. This technique could be useful when the soils are heterogeneous because it allows a complete soil sweeping.
Abstract. Foam can be generated in porous media, mainly by snap-off phenomena, by co-injecting gas and a surfactant solution. The liquid films that separate the gas bubbles, called lamellae, and gas trapping in small pores where capillary pressure is high generate a resistance to flow that drastically decreases fluid mobilities in porous media. Experiments performed with a 2D laboratory pilot consisting of two layers with different properties clearly highlight that foam is generated in the high-permeability layer and will divert flow towards the low-permeability region. This behaviour is of great interest for the remediation of heterogeneous polluted soils.
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