Investigation the performance of electrokinetic method on removal of polyaromatic hydrocarbons from contaminated soils: A systematic review

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have several adverse effects on human health and environment in the short and long term. In this study, a systematic review of the studies carried out to date on the removal of PAHs from contaminated soils by electrokinetic method and determining the parameters affecting this process has been investigated.

This research is a systematic review study. For this purpose, the keywords related to PAHs pollutants and electrokinetic methods were first prepared. Search in scientific databases including Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed was done. After completion of the search, the findings of search was transferred to the Endnote software and screening was done to reach articles that are fully related to the subject.

A total of 571 articles were found until September 10, 2018 from the mentioned data basis. Then, 10 studies were carefully reviewed after removing duplicates and non-compliant items. The included studies were from 2000 to 2017. In 3 studies, electrochemical methods with surfactants and biosurfactants were used. Four studies utilized biodegradation techniques along with electro-kinetics. Combination of the electrokinetic with other processes can increase the efficiency of this process in removing PAHs from soil in a short period (less than 1 month).

Considering the influence of different parameters on the process, it is recommended to conduct a pilot test to optimize the process before the implementation of this method.