EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The contamination of soils and groundwater by toxic and /or hazardous organic pollutants is a widespread environmental problem and the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from contaminated soils or groundwater is a major concern. Naphthalene is a simplest PAH, which is synthetic substance that has been used in the past in New Zealand as a component for road pavement. Soils and waters that have been contaminated by naphthalene may pose long-term risks to public health and wildlife. As naphthalene generally results in carcinogenic, renal, and neurological effects, there are considerable concerns about the adverse impact. There is hundreds of naphthalene-contaminated sites in New Zealand and significant quantities of naphthalene are still legally emitted into the environment every single day. Sequestration of naphthalene using activated carbon (AC) is being exploited as a remediation strategy. Surfactants may have a positive effect on the absorption capability of AC for PAHs removal from contaminated sediments, soils and waters. Surfactants can increase the solubilities of PAHs by partitioning them into the hydrophobic cores of surfactant micelles when surfactant concentrations are above the critical micelle concentration (CMC). Thus, surfactants are able to improve the mass-transfer of PAHs from solid into aqueous phases by accumulating the PAHs in the micelles an