Yasemin Kunukcu, PhD, PE

Yasemin Kunukcu is a Technical Director at Roux in Somerset, New Jersey. She has more than eighteen years of environmental consulting experience focusing on design, implementation, and management of site-specific in situ soil and groundwater remediation technologies, including Enhanced In Situ Bioremediation (EISB), In Situ Chemical Reduction (ISCR), In Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO), In Situ Thermal Treatment (ISTT), biosparging, bioslurping, and bioventing for numerous multi-faceted environmental remediation projects with a wide range of contaminants, including chlorinated solvents, chromium, petroleum hydrocarbons, emerging contaminants (PFAS, 1,4-Dioxane, etc.).

She participated extensively in the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) Optimizing Injection Strategies and In Situ Remediation, PFAS, and Microplastics teams, and the Natural Groundwater Association (NGWA) PFAS team during the development of the guidance documents as a co-leader/writer. She is currently serving on the ITRC PFAS and Microplastics teams.

Yasemin holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and is a registered PE in New York.

• Brownfields Redevelopment – Paterson, New Jersey: Project Manager and a member of engineering design team for a Brownfield Redevelopment project with various environmental impacts from historical leather tanning and plastics manufacturing, including phthalates chlorinated ethenes and Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (TENORM). Dr. Kunukcu evaluated a chlorinated ethene groundwater plume and co-designed a phased remediation approach, incorporating a grid-style enhanced in situ bioremediation program (EISB) (biostimulation, aquifer conditioning, and bioaugmentation) and a permeable reactive barrier adjacent to the property boundary, comprised of direct-push injections of an activated carbon and metallic iron amendment (RPI BOS100).
• Overburden and Bedrock Enhanced EISB – Nutley, New Jersey: Project Manager and a member of the engineering design team for a large investigative area impacted by multiple phases (DNAPL, residual DNAPL, sorbed, dissolved) of chlorinated ethenes in soil, overburden groundwater, weathered bedrock (matrix and groundwater), and fractured bedrock (matrix and groundwater). Dr. Kunukcu was instrumental in the development, design, and management of a methane inhibition bench-scale treatability study, an Interim Remedial Measure to treat overburden soil and groundwater with biostimulation and bioaugmentation, two aquifer pumping and tracer tests, one short-term dewatering pumping test, and an extensive enhanced in situ bioremediation pilot test in weathered and fractured bedrock.
• ISCO Injection Program – Tenafly, New Jersey: Project Manager/Lead Engineer for the design, management, and implementation of an ISCO pilot test injection program to treat chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs; mainly chloroethane with a highest concentration of 18,000 ug/L) in the shallow groundwater zone. NaOH-activated sodium persulfate (Klozur SP) was used at 16 temporary injection points using a direct-push technology during the ISCO injection program. Achieved significant reductions in post-oxidation CVOC concentrations in groundwater and a 90% reduction in total CVOC mass flux at two out of three source wells.
• Superfund Remediation Program – Vineland, New Jersey: Task Manager and a member of the engineering team for in situ remediation design and implementation for a Superfund project at a former exotic metal alloy production facility in southern New Jersey. The key groundwater issues include a large chromium plume (~3,500 feet in length) and a chlorinated ethene plume impacting the Cohansey aquifer with some impacted intervals over 100 feet thick. Dr. Kunukcu held various coordination roles during the implementation of the source zone remediation program, which spanned four years, three major areas of the plume, and the injection of >21 million gallons; this was ultimately highly effective in reducing concentrations and mass flux.

• Yasemin Kacar Kunukcu, “In Situ Bioremediation of Groundwater Contaminated with Petroleum Constituents Using Oxygen Release Compounds,” Journal of Environmental Science & Health, Part A. Vol. 42, No. 7, 2007.

• Hilla Shemer, Yasemin Kacar Kunukcu, and Karl G. Linden, “Degradation of pharmaceutical Metronidazol via UV, fenton and photo fenton processes,” Chemosphere. Vol. 63, No. 2, 269-276., 2006.

• Yasemin Kacar Kunukcu, Kinetics of wet air oxidation (WAO) of alcaloide factory wastewater., Journal of Environmental Science & Health, Part A. Vol. 40, No.4, 793-805, 2005.

• Kacar Kunukcu, Y., Wiesmann, U., and Alpay, E., Aerobic biological degradation and anaerobic digestion of opium alkaloid factory wastewater. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin. Vol. 13, No. 4, 341-345, 2004.

• Kacar, Y., Alpay, E. and Ceylan, V.K., Pretreatment of Afyon alcaloide factory’s wastewater by wet air oxidation (WAO), Water Research. Vol. 37, No. 5, 1170-1176., 2003.