A Design Tool for Solar Thermal Remediation Using Borehole Heat Exchangers.

Low temperature heating of the subsurface (increases of about 5-20 °C) can substantially increase rates of biotic and abiotic destruction of dissolved contaminants such as chlorinated solvents. Low-temperature heating can be sustainably and cost-effectively achieved using solar thermal collectors coupled with closed-loop borehole heat exchangers. This technology has been implemented at several sites in the United States and abroad with favorable results.

Impact of matrix diffusion on the migration of groundwater plumes for Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and other non-degradable compounds.

Groundwater fate and transport modeling results demonstrate that matrix diffusion plays a role in attenuating the expansion of groundwater plumes of "non-degrading" or highly recalcitrant compounds. This is especially significant for systems where preferred destructive attenuation processes, such as biological and abiotic degradation, are weak or ineffective for plume control. Under these conditions, models of nondestructive physical attenuation processes, traditionally dispersion or sorption, do not demonstrate sufficient plume control unless matrix diffusion is considered.

Chlorinated Ethene Degradation Rate Coefficients Simulated with Intact Sandstone Core Microcosms.

Abiotic transformation of trichloroethene (TCE) in fractured porous rock such as sandstone is challenging to characterize and quantify. The objective of this study was to estimate the pseudo first-order abiotic reaction rate coefficients in diffusion-dominated intact core microcosms. The microcosms imitated clean flow through a fracture next to a contaminated rock matrix by exchanging uncontaminated groundwater, unamended or lactate-amended, in a chamber above a TCE-infused sandstone core.

Simulation of in situ biodegradation of 1,4-dioxane under metabolic and cometabolic conditions.

Bioaugmentation is an option for aerobic remediation of groundwater contaminated with 1,4-dioxane. One approach uses microbes that cometabolize 1,4-dioxane following growth on a primary substrate (e.g.

Semi-analytical method for matrix diffusion in heterogeneous and fractured systems with parent-daughter reactions.

A semi-analytical/numerical method for modeling matrix diffusion in heterogeneous and fractured groundwater systems is developed. This is a significant extension of the Falta and Wang (2017) method that only applied to diffusion in an aquitard of infinite thickness. The current solution allows for the low permeability matrix to be embedded within a numerical gridblock, having finite average thickness, a specified volume fraction and a specified interfacial area with the high permeability domain.

A semi-analytical method for simulating matrix diffusion in numerical transport models.

A semi-analytical approximation for transient matrix diffusion is developed for use in numerical contaminant transport simulators. This method is an adaptation and extension of the heat conduction method of Vinsome and Westerveld (1980) used to simulate heat losses during thermally enhanced oil recovery. The semi-analytical method is used in place of discretization of the low permeability materials, and it represents the concentration profile in the low permeability materials with a fitting function that is adjusted in each element at each time-step.

Numerical Analysis of Thermal Remediation in 3D Field-Scale Fractured Geologic Media.

Thermal methods are promising for remediating fractured geologic media contaminated with volatile organic compounds, and the success of this process depends on the coupled heat transfer, multiphase flow, and thermodynamics. This study analyzed field-scale removal of trichloroethylene (TCE) and heat transfer behavior in boiling fractured geologic media using the multiple interacting continua method. This method can resolve local gradients in the matrix and is less computationally demanding than alternative methods like discrete fracture-matrix models.

Experimental method for characterizing CVOC removal from fractured clays during boiling.

Conventional remediation methods that rely on contact with contaminants can be ineffective in fractured media, but thermal methods of remediation involving CVOC stripping at boiling temperature show promise. However, limited experimental data are available to characterize thermal remediation because of challenges associated with high temperature. This research reports an experimental method using uniformly contaminated clay packed into two types of experimental cells, a rigid-wall stainless steel tube and a flexible-wall Teflon tube in a pressurized chamber.

Kinetics of 1,2-dichloroethane and 1,2-dibromoethane biodegradation in anaerobic enrichment cultures.

1,2-Dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) and 1,2-dibromoethane (ethylene dibromide [EDB]) contaminate groundwater at many hazardous waste sites. The objectives of this study were to measure yields, maximum specific growth rates (μ), and half-saturation coefficients (K(S)) in enrichment cultures that use 1,2-DCA and EDB as terminal electron acceptors and lactate as the electron donor and to evaluate if the presence of EDB has an effect on the kinetics of 1,2-DCA dehalogenation and vice versa. Biodegradation was evaluated at the high concentrations found at some industrial sites (>10 mg/liter) and at lower concentrations found at former leaded-gasoline sites (1.

Numerical analysis of contaminant removal from fractured rock during boiling.

A multiphase heat transfer numerical model is used to simulate a laboratory experiment of contaminant removal at boiling temperatures from a rock core representing the matrix adjacent to a fracture. The simulated temperature, condensate production, contaminant and bromide concentrations are similar to experimental data. A key observation from the experiment and simulation is that boiling out approximately 1/2 pore volume (50 mL) of water results in the removal of essentially 100% of the dissolved volatile contaminant (1,2-DCA).

Henry's law constants of chlorinated solvents at elevated temperatures.

Henry's law constants for 12 chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) were measured as a function of temperature ranging from 8 to 93°C, using the modified equilibrium partitioning in closed system (EPICS) method. The chlorinated compounds include tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, cis-1,2-dichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, 1,1-dichloroethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, chloroethane, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, dichloromethane, and chloromethane. The variation in Henry's constants for these compounds as a function of temperature ranged from around 3-fold (chloroethane) to 30-fold (1,2-dichloroethane).

Remediation of NAPL source zones: lessons learned from field studies at Hill and Dover AFB.

Innovative remediation studies were conducted between 1994 and 2004 at sites contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) at Hill and Dover AFB, and included technologies that mobilize, solubilize, and volatilize NAPL: air sparging (AS), surfactant flushing, cosolvent flooding, and flushing with a complexing-sugar solution. The experiments proved that aggressive remedial efforts tailored to the contaminant can remove more than 90% of the NAPL-phase contaminant mass. Site-characterization methods were tested as part of these field efforts, including partitioning tracer tests, biotracer tests, and mass-flux measurements.

Experimental demonstration of contaminant removal from fractured rock by boiling.

This study was conducted to experimentally demonstrate removal of a chlorinated volatile organic compound from fractured rock by boiling. A Berea sandstone core was contaminated by injecting water containing dissolved 1,2-DCA (253 mg/L) and sodium bromide (144 mg/L). During heating, the core was sealed except for one end, which was open to the atmosphere to simulate an open fracture.

Numerical modeling of thermal conductive heating in fractured bedrock.

Numerical modeling was employed to study the performance of thermal conductive heating (TCH) in fractured shale under a variety of hydrogeological conditions. Model results show that groundwater flow in fractures does not significantly affect the minimum treatment zone temperature, except near the beginning of heating or when groundwater influx is high. However, fracture and rock matrix properties can significantly influence the time necessary to remove all liquid water (i.

Simulation of the effect of remediation on EDB and 1,2-DCA plumes at sites contaminated by leaded gasoline.

An analytical model is used to simulate the effects of partial source removal and plume remediation on ethylene dibromide (EDB) and 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) plumes at contaminated underground storage tank (UST) sites. The risk posed by EDB, 1,2-DCA, and commingled gasoline hydrocarbons varies throughout the plume over time. Dissolution from the light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) determines the concentration of each contaminant near the source, but biological decay in the plume has a greater influence as distance downgradient from the source increases.

Anaerobic biodegradation of ethylene dibromide and 1,2-dichloroethane in the presence of fuel hydrocarbons.

Field evidence from underground storage tank sites where leaded gasoline leaked indicates the lead scavengers 1,2-dibromoethane (ethylene dibromide, or EDB) and 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) may be present in groundwater at levels that pose unacceptable risk. These compounds are seldom tested for at UST sites. Although dehalogenation of EDB and 1,2-DCA is well established, the effect of fuel hydrocarbons on their biodegradability under anaerobic conditions is poorly understood.

Methodology for comparing source and plume remediation alternatives.

It is often difficult at contaminated sites to decide whether remediation effort should be focused on the contaminant source, the dissolved plume, or on both zones. The decision process at these sites is hampered by a lack of quantitative tools for comparing remediation alternatives. A new screening-level mass balance approach is developed for simulating the transient effects of simultaneous ground water source and plume remediation.

Modeling field-scale cosolvent flooding for DNAPL source zone remediation.

A three-dimensional, compositional, multiphase flow simulator was used to model a field-scale test of DNAPL removal by cosolvent flooding. The DNAPL at this site was tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and the flooding solution was an ethanol/water mixture, with up to 95% ethanol. The numerical model, UTCHEM accounts for the equilibrium phase behavior and multiphase flow of a ternary ethanol-PCE-water system.

Temporal evolution of DNAPL source and contaminant flux distribution: impacts of source mass depletion.

We investigated, using model simulations, the changes occurring in the distribution of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) mass (Sn) within the source zone during depletion through dissolution, and the resulting changes in the contaminant flux distribution (J) at the source control plane (CP). Two numerical codes (ISCO3D and T2VOC) were used to simulate selected scenarios of DNAPL dissolution and transport in three-dimensional, heterogeneous, spatially correlated, random permeability fields with emplaced sources. Data from the model simulations were interpreted based on population statistics (mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation) and spatial statistics (centroid, second moments, variograms).

Assessing impacts of partial mass depletion in DNAPL source zones: II. Coupling source strength functions to plume evolution.

Analytical solutions, describing the time-dependent DNAPL source-zone mass and contaminant discharge rate, derived previously in Part I [Falta, R.W., Rao, P.

Assessing the impacts of partial mass depletion in DNAPL source zones I. Analytical modeling of source strength functions and plume response.

Analytical solutions are developed for approximating the time-dependent contaminant discharge from DNAPL source zones undergoing dissolution and other decay processes. The source functions assume a power relationship between source mass and chemical discharge and can consider partial DNAPL source remediation (depletion) at any time after the initial DNAPL release. The source functions are used as a time-dependent boundary condition in an idealized chemical transport model to develop leading order approximations of the plume response to DNAPL source removal.

Analytical solution for subsurface gas flow to a well induced by surface pressure fluctuations.

A simple analytical model is presented for predicting subsurface gas flow to a vadose-zone well in response to atmospheric pressure fluctuations (barometric pumping). The effective radial permeability (kr) in the vicinity of the well is determined during model calibration using less than two weeks worth of data. By combining the flow solution with a solution for the vertical gas pressure, only atmospheric pressure data are required to predict the induced flow through a well.

BUOYANT ADVECTION OF GASES IN UNSATURATED SOIL.

In unsaturated soil, methane and volatile organic compounds can significantly alter the density of soil gas and induce buoyant gas flow. A series of laboratory experiments was conducted in a two-dimensional, homogeneous sand pack with gas permeabilities ranging from 110 to 3,000 darcy. Pure methane gas was injected horizontally into the sand and steady-state methane profiles were measured.