Environment Assessment for Remediation Technology of Contaminated Ballasts in Korean Railroad Site

초록

In railroad site, ballasts as well as soil are contaminated by the oil leakage during the maintenance of railroad track or the operation of diesel-powered railcar. For the remediation of contaminated ballasts, we developed the dry cleaning method to apply the blasting technology which can remove the pollutants on the surface of ballasts. The purpose of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts considering the life-cycle of dry cleaning system. The used green and sustainable remediation (GSR) tool was SiteWiseTM and the life-cycles of the system were classified into four phases such as RIs (remedial investigations), RACs (remedial action constructions), RA-Os (remedial action constructions) and LTM (long-term monitoring). The assessed environment impacts were greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, total energy consumption, NOx, SOx, and PM10. At the RA-Os phase, the relative contribution of environmental impacts was the highest because the large amount of diesel and blasting media were used during the operation of dry cleaning device for the treatment of the contaminated ballasts. Also, the RACs phase showed high environmental impacts due to the material consumption for the manufacturing of dry cleaning device. In conclusion, the main green remediation strategies of this technology are to decrease fuel consumption and to enhance the durability life of dry cleaning device.