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Vertical migration and variation of crude oil in soil around typical oilfields under natural leaching

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Abstract

Petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants will enter the soil with the extraction, processing and transportation of crude oil, and under the action of gravity and rainfall leaching, they will migrate and spread in the soil causing pollution. The change rule of this process has not been systematically studied. In this study, the vertical migration of crude oil in uncontaminated soil around typical oilfields was simulated through soil column leaching experiments with different leaching amount, soil types, oil concentrations and properties. Soil columns were sampled in stratified sections, and the concentration and component dynamics of crude oil in soil at different depths were analyzed using ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The purpose of this research was to investigate the vertical migration and variation of crude oil in uncontaminated soil under natural leaching. Results showed that the crude oil contaminants were mainly concentrated in soils above 15 cm, and the oil content showed a negative exponential change with the depth. The migration amount of crude oil was positively correlated with the initial oil concentration, but the migration rate was negatively correlated with the same. With the increase in the leaching time and depth, the light and medium components in crude oil gradually decreased, while the heavy components gradually increased. The migration of aromatic hydrocarbons in soil was stronger than that of other components. This study aimed to provide a more comprehensive perspective for evaluating the environmental behavior of crude oil in soil and has reference value for the remediation of crude oil-contaminated soil.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFC1804101) for support.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFC1804101).

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Author notes

  1. H. Chen and Y. Hao have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    H. Chen, S. L. Zhang, J. R. Pan, M. F. Lang & X. T. Guo

  2. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and the Agri-Environment in Northwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, Yangling, 712100, China

    H. Chen & X. T. Guo

  3. Ningxia Environmental Science Research Institute Co.Ltd., Yinchuan, 750000, China

    Y. Hao

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Contributions

XG was involved in conceptualization, project administration, funding acquisition and supervision; HC and ML assisted with methodology; HC, SZ and JP carried out formal analysis and investigation; HC and YH was responsible for writing—original draft preparation; and YH, SZ, JP, ML and XG contributed to writing—reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to X. T. Guo.

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Editorial responsibility: Samareh Mirkia.

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Chen, H., Hao, Y., Zhang, S.L. et al. Vertical migration and variation of crude oil in soil around typical oilfields under natural leaching. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 21, 3073–3086 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05158-3

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