Using CO2- induced magnesium carbonate as environmental friendly additives for petroleum decontamination sandy soils

Chemical pollutants, including petroleum contaminations causes soil pollution due to improper transportation, leakage, or storage. Several methods for soil decontamination have been presented according to the type of soil and their level of pollution. In choosing the appropriate method and materials, paying attention to environmental issues, availability and cost-effectiveness of the used method is particularly important. In the current research, the ability of various environmentally friendly materials as absorbents of petroleum pollutants and their effect on sandy soil has been studied. Mineral additives including zeolite and perlite as well as magnesium carbonate produced by carbon dioxide released from industries have been selected as absorbents of petroleum pollutants. In the first stage of the research, the amount of absorption of oil pollutants (i.e., diesel and kerosene) has been investigated by different additives. For this purpose, the absorption percentage of the studied soil and various additives has been determined. The results showed the high absorption capacity of all three additives. as well as magnesium carbonate absorbed more than 90% by weight of diesel pollutant, which is the highest absorption percentage among the additives, and compared to the absorption percentage of soil, which was 26.5%. The results of this research indicated the optimal performance of magnesium carbonate for absorption of oil pollutants in sand. In addition to the significant amount of absorption of oil pollutants, magnesium carbonate can be considered by researchers and engineers as an environmentally friendly adsorbent due to the use of carbon dioxide released from industries in its production process