An overview of surfactant enhanced aquifer remediation.

A systematic study of the phase behavior of chlorinated hydrocarbons with various surfactant species in aqueous solution is discussed. Chlorinated hydrocarbons are more polar and better solvents than hydrocarbons and therefore require more hydrophilic surfactants in order to exhibit classical Winsor type phase behavior. These chlorocarbons and surfactants still obey the mathematical relationships for mixing that we previously established for hydrocarbons. Mass-transport calculations show that surfactants should drastically decrease the time required to clean up toxic spills involving chlorocarbons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]