Saiful Afandi, Rhenny Ratnawati
Petroleum, the dominant global energy source, significantly produces damaging impacts on the environment, especially through soil pollution. Effective technologies are required to remediate petroleum-contaminated soils, with soil washing as one of the feasible methods. This study investigated the effect of surfactant concentration and type in reducing Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) levels in polluted soil using soil washing technique. Two surfactants were tested: Methyl Ester Sulfonate, a biologically based surfactant, and Polysorbate 80, a synthetic surfactant. This study used artificially polluted soil. A total of 875 g of sand mixed with 125 g of used motor oil obtained initial TPH levels of 10.8% to 11.4%. The concentration variations used were (0.0; 0.125; 0.25; 0.5; 0.75; 1.0; 1.25; 1.5)% (w/v). The ratio of soil and surfactant solution during the soil washing process was maintained at 1:15, with the surfactant solution adjusted at pH 7-8 and temperature of 28 ℃ to 32.5 ℃ with the soil type used being sandy soil. TPH reduction efficiency was evaluated using the gravimetric method. The results showed that biobased surfactant Methyl Ester Sulfonate outperformed Polysorbate 80 in reducing TPH levels. The highest removal achieved with Methyl Ester Sulfonate was 86.9% at 1% concentration, while Polysorbate 80 achieved a maximum reduction of 69.0% at 1.25% concentration. The results of the ANOVA test also showed that there was an effect of the specified variables in the reduction of TPH levels in petroleum polluted soil, P value (<0.05). This study underscores the efficacy of Methyl Ester Sulfonate in the soil remediation process, offering a promising solution to reduce soil pollution by reducing TPH. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.
Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas PGRI Adi Buana Surabaya, Jalan Dukuh Menanggal XII, Surabaya, 60234, Indonesia
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