Air Sparging, Bio-sparging, Bio-venting, and Soil Vapour Extraction

Air sparging, bio-sparging, and bio-venting are all remediation techniques that involve increasing the flow of air or oxygen to a zone of contaminated soil or groundwater.

Air sparging is an in situ treatment suitable for treating the contamination of permeable soils with certain types of volatile contaminants: air is pumped into the soil at depth, causing volatilization of certain types of contaminants. Rather than simply letting the volatilized contaminants dissipate passively, soil vapour extraction (SVE) is a technique used to accelerate the process by actively drawing air out of the ground.

Bio-venting is similar to air-sparging but the objective is slightly different; the aim of bio-venting is to increase the flow of oxygen into soil, thereby accelerating microbial activity in a process known as “enhanced natural attenuation”. Bio-venting is typically completed as an in situ treatment, but can also be used in conjunction with ex situ treatment in bio-piles or treatment cells.

Similar to bio-venting, bio-sparging (or oxygenation), is another form of enhanced natural attenuation that involves increasing oxygen flow. However, bio-sparging targets contamination in groundwater or soil below the water table. By adding oxygen to groundwater, microbial activity is increased and the time required for remediation is reduced.

With many years of experience in air sparging, bio-sparging, bio-venting, and soil vapour extraction, GAIA has an excellent understanding of the technical variables associated with these techniques. With its capacity for designing, assembling, installing, and operating environmental remediation systems, GAIA offers a full-service, turnkey approach to in situ treatment systems.