Life-cycle case study comparison of permeable reactive barrier versus pump-and-treat remediation.

A permeable reactive barrier (PRB) is a passive remediation technology, which over decades of use, may reduce lifetime environmental impacts when compared with a conventional pump-and-treat system (PTS). Greater material production requirements to install PRBs may offset the expected reductions in operational phase impacts and the trade-offs can be investigated in a life-cycle assessment (LCA). The life-cycle environmental impacts of a zerovalent iron (ZVI) containing PRB with a funnel and gate configuration and a PTS were compared in a case study.