Remediates more than 21,000 m3of affected soils after eight months of action

LITOCLEAN has extensive experience in remediation of contaminated soil and water. Proof of this is the successful decontamination achieved in record time in the land affected by an oil pipeline and the deposits to which it transported the hydrocarbon.
A thorough investigation of the area to be remediated revealed 3,600m2 of soil affected by an aviation fuel leak, between two and five meters deep. The groundwater also showed contamination. And all this with an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment, for which an action was necessary in order to restore the quality of the soil.
LITOCLEAN’s goal was to remediate soils and associated groundwater in the affected plots within a maximum of eight months. To achieve this, the company’s experts opted to apply a combined technique of selective excavation of the soils through forced aeration, hydraulic barrier and water oxygenation. According to LITOCLEAN’s hydrogeologist, Sergi López, this is “an effective methodology taking into account the high volume of earth to be excavated, which reached 34,717 m3, the limited execution period and the tight budget we had”.
Forced aeration of soils is a technique that consists of transporting contaminated soil to a platform that emits oxygenated vapors, with the objective of favoring the expulsion of harmful gases, while a machine turns the soil to aerate it and volatilize the contaminants. This method was combined with the creation of hydraulic barriers to isolate the groundwater affected by the hydrocarbons and prevent their spread to other sites. Finally, the water oxygenation technique was chosen to alter the chemistry of the contaminating molecules and render them harmless.
After the company’s intervention, a total of 21,086 m3of soil was remediated and a volume of water of 62,830 m3 was conveyed and treated. In addition, according to the LITOCLEAN technician, “a successful reduction of hydrocarbon concentrations detected in soil and water of more than 90% was achieved”, and 2,100 liters of aviation gasoline were recovered.
For more than a decade, the consulting firm LITOCLEAN, an expert in soil decontamination, has been implementing this combination of techniques, which are suitable in cases of remediation of a large volume of land, with a limited execution time and budget. Nowadays and with the technological advances in this field, the soil bioremediation method is also applied. This soil remediation process has the advantage of requiring less economic investment, although, on the other hand, it takes longer.