In-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) has been used for soil and groundwater remediation purpose. Hydrogen peroxide, permanganate, and persulfate are common oxidant in ISCO. Usually, each oxidant produces reactive species through several catalytic reactions and this process is called as activation. The performance of ISCO is dependent on the activation methods and the activating efficiency since the degradation was achieved by the reactive species such as radicals rather than the mother oxidant. There are several activation methods for persulfate including heat activation, light activation, base activation and transition metal catalytic activation. Heat activation and light activation produce two persulfate radicals by a homolytic cleavage but the transition metal catalyzed activation is a reductive activation through one electron transfer. In this study, two reductive activation methods were compared.  Ferrous iron and zero-valent iron (ZVI) were tested for the activation and compared with the heat activation which has been studied in previous studies.  Ferrous iron and ZVI successfully activated the persulfate and ZVI has higher activation potential over ferrous iron. It is evaluated that contribution of the eluted ferrous iron from ZVI surface on the persulfate activation. Persulfate activated by ZVI and ferrous iron can be an alternative for the ISCO.

Comparison of activation methods for persulfate applied in-situ chemical oxidation

247th National Meeting (2014)

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