Passive systems application for soil gas monitoring in contaminated sites (ISPRA-Unem Agreement)

The document presents the results of five field tests involving ISPRA, ARPAV, ARPAE, Eni R&D, Eni Rewind and the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" on the application of different active and passive sampling soil gas methods. The research was conducted in two areas of the Porto Marghera and Ferrara industrial sites, characterized by the presence of BTEX and chlorinated solvents in soil and groundwater. The tests compared active soil gas sampling, using canisters and sorbent tubes, with passive methods like low-density polyethylene (PE) membranes, sorbent pens and Waterloo Membrane Samplers (WMS).

The study highlighted the usefulness of passive sampling systems as a complement to the active soil gas monitoring network to make it more representative for a better contamination sources definition and for the identification of preferential pathways for the gas migration/accumulation. However, passive samplers need further investigation and experimentation to overcome some of the challenges encountered.

Publication available only on-line

Download the publication (pdf 5 mb)