Assessing degradation rates of chlorinated ethylenes in column experiments with commercial iron materials used in permeable reactive barriers.

Multiple column experiments were performed using two commercial iron materials to evaluate the necessity and usefulness of preliminary investigations in permeable reactive barrier (PRB) design for chlorinated organics. Experiments were performed with contaminated groundwater and involved fresh iron granules or altered iron material excavated from PRBs. The determination of first-order rate coefficients by global nonlinear least-squares fittings indicated a variability in rate coefficients on 1 or 2 orders of magnitude.