Table Of ContentPermeable
Reactive
Barrier
Sustainable Groundwater Remediation
ADVANCES IN TRACE ELEMENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT
Series Editor: H. Magdi Selim
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA
Permeable Reactive Barrier: Sustainable Groundwater Remediation
edited by Ravi Naidu and Volker Birke
Phosphate in Soils: Interaction with Micronutrients, Radionuclides and Heavy Metals
edited by H. Magdi Selim
Permeable
Reactive
Barrier
Sustainable Groundwater Remediation
Edited by
Ravi Naidu
Volker Birke
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Version Date: 20141020
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Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................... vii
Editors ......................................................................................................................ix
Contributors ............................................................................................................xi
1 Permeable Reactive Barriers: Cost-Effective and Sustainable
Remediation of Groundwater ......................................................................1
Ravi Naidu, Dawit N. Bekele, and Volker Birke
2 Two Decades of Application of Permeable Reactive Barriers
to Groundwater Remediation ....................................................................25
Scott D. Warner
3 Choosing the Best Design and Construction Technologies
for Permeable Reactive Barriers ................................................................ 41
Dawit N. Bekele, Ravi Naidu, Volker Birke, and Sreenivasulu Chadalavada
4 Groundwater Modeling Involving PRBs: General Aspects,
Case Study ......................................................................................................63
Sreenivasulu Chadalavada, Martin Wegner, and Ravi Naidu
5 Impact of Trace Elements and Impurities in Technical
Zero-Valent Iron Brands on Reductive Dechlorination of
Chlorinated Ethenes in Groundwater ......................................................87
Volker Birke, Christine Schuett, Harald Burmeier,
and Hans-Jürgen Friedrich
6 Fourteen-Year Assessment of a Permeable Reactive Barrier
for Treatment of Hexavalent Chromium and Trichloroethylene ........99
Richard T. Wilkin, Tony R. Lee, Mary Sue McNeil, Chunming Su,
and Cherri Adair
7 Sequenced Permeable Reactive Barrier for the Pretreatment
of Nitrate and Remediation of Trichloroethene ................................... 109
Keely Mundle, Janet Macmillan, and Ben McCarthy
8 Organic-Based Permeable Reactive Barriers for the Treatment
of Heavy Metals, Arsenic, and Acidity .................................................. 135
Ralph D. Ludwig, Richard T. Wilkin, Steven D. Acree,
Randall R. Ross, and Tony R. Lee
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vi Contents
9 Effective Cleanup of Groundwater Contaminated with
Radionuclides Using Permeable Reactive Barriers ............................. 151
Franz-Georg Simon and Tamás Meggyes
10 Reactive (Oxygen) Gas Barrier and Zone Technologies ..................... 177
Ronald Giese, Frank Ingolf Engelmann, Dietrich Swaboda,
Uli Uhlig, and Ludwig Luckner
11 Remediation of PAHs, NSO-Heterocycles, and Related
Aromatic Compounds in Permeable Reactive Barriers Using
Activated Carbon ........................................................................................ 215
Wolf-Ulrich Palm, Jan Sebastian Mänz, and Wolfgang Ruck
12 Case Study of PRB Application for the Remediation
of Groundwater ........................................................................................... 249
James Stening
13 Permeable Reactive Barriers in Europe .................................................. 275
Volker Birke and Harald Burmeier
Index .....................................................................................................................309
Preface
The past century has witnessed dramatic rates of industrialization around
the world, with average annual economic growth rates exceeding 7% in some
countries. One of the prices to be paid for such rapid growth, however, is
environmental deterioration. Air, water, and soil pollutions have been of seri
ous concern for decades in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, and other developed nations in Europe.
Over the last three decades, the spectacular economic growth of Latin
America, China, India, Korea, and other Asian countries has generated an
increasing number of contaminated sites and waste disposal problems.
These represent a global challenge. The world’s estimated five million poten
tially contaminated sites are both a major lost economic opportunity and
also a threat to the health and well-being of the community and the wider
environment. Common contaminants include petroleum hydrocarbons,
chlorinated hydrocarbons, pesticides, inorganics such as toxic metal(loids),
and radioactive wastes. These are frequently found at a variety of sites, such
as oil, gas, and petrochemical operations, mines, industrial sites, waterways
and harbors, fuel storage farms, workshops, munitions factories, and so on.
Although site contamination has been recognized as an issue for more than
70 years, fewer than a tenth of all contaminated sites have been remediated
due to the complex and challenging nature of contamination, the highly
complex and heterogeneous subsurface that may vary from site to site, and
the high costs of clean-up. Most of these contaminated sites have associated
groundwater contamination problems that prevent their effective and reli
able remediation and pose risks to the health of communities sometimes
quite distant from the original site. Remediation of groundwater is often
challenging due to the heterogeneity of the subsurface environment, diffi
culties with delineating contaminant plume, and the slow release and diffu
sion of contaminants from fractured rock and from sorbed phases. For these
reasons, many groundwater remediation techniques currently in use have
delivered only transient success.
A number of different techniques have been used for the remediation of
groundwater with the most cost-effective strategy being a risk-based approach
that is commonly practiced in Australia, where the state of Victoria’s legis
lation requires clean-up of groundwater to the extent practicable (CUTEP).
Similar laws have been adopted in other states where site remediators clean
groundwater using technologies that may not fully remediate groundwa
ter, given the technological limitations or other environmental constraints.
Under these circumstances, the site is cleaned as far as practicable, and the
groundwater is then monitored over a sustained period to demonstrate natu
ral attenuation of the contaminants. In this approach, natural attenuation
vii
viii Preface
of groundwater is the primary strategy for remediation. Other less passive
approaches include
• Pump and treat
• Bioventing
• Chemical oxidation (in situ)
• Permeable reactive barrier (more recent)
Pump and treat was one of the first techniques to be trialed in the United
States. This involves pumping groundwater through an ex situ reactor and
the cleansed water then reinjected back into the aquifer. Although pump and
treat has often been unsuccessful and is prohibitively expensive, it is still
widely used by large companies seeking to comply with the demands of reg
ulators. Both bioventing and chemical oxidation techniques are also widely
used and have proven similarly expensive and unattractive to owners of
contaminated sites. For an overview of remediation techniques, readers are
referred to a recent paper by Naidu (2013). Given the high cost of pump and
treat technology, a host of other technologies for hydrocarbon remediation
is also being tested in the field. Among these techniques is permeable reac
tive barrier (PRB) technology, which allows groundwater to pass through a
buried porous barrier that either captures the contaminants or breaks them
down. This approach is gaining popularity in the United States, Europe, and
Australia. This book covers
• Two decades of experience in PRB applications
• Design criteria
• Predictive modeling to assist the design of PRBs
• Application to contaminants beyond petroleum hydrocarbons,
including inorganics and radionuclides
• New areas of research
The book is intended for individuals responsible for the management of site
contamination programs, regulators, remediators, and postgraduate students.
Ravi Naidu
Volker Birke
Reference
Naidu, R. 2013. Recent advances in contaminated site remediation. Water, Air, & Soil
Pollution, 224, 1–11.
Editors
Ravi Naidu is the chief executive officer, managing
director, and chief scientist of the Cooperative
Research Centre for Contamination Assessment
and Remediation of the Environment (CRC
CARE). Professor Naidu is also the founding
director of the Centre for Environmental Risk
Assessment and Remediation (CERAR). He has
researched environmental contaminants, bio
availability, and remediation for over 25 years.
Professor Naidu has coauthored 414 refereed
journal articles and 7 patents and coedited 11
books and 66 book chapters in the field of soil and
environmental sciences. He has also supervised
over 30 PhD completions. Professor Naidu was
instrumental in developing a network of scientists
working on contamination—Soil Contamination
Research Australasia Pacific (SCRAP). As part of
this network he has independently raised funds for research and training in
the Asia region. Over the last 10 years he has conducted more than 20 work
shops, 5 international conferences, and raised more than $500M (includes
CRC CARE funding) for research in this region. The network has led to the
establishment of similar groupings of people within the regional countries
and now has over 4000 members across the region.
Professor Naidu’s current research focuses on contaminated soil and water
and potential impacts of contaminants on human health. Professor Naidu’s
vision is to expand his current research on the environment to China and
the Asia region through collaboration and the development of a Centre of
Excellence, an environmental risk assessment and remediation in China. The
focus of such a center will be the development and worldwide marketing of
environment technology.
In recognition of his contribution to environmental research he was
awarded a Gold Medal in environmental science in 1998 by Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University (TNAU). He is an elected Fellow of the Soil Science
Societies of America (2000), New Zealand (2004), and the Agronomy Society
of America (2006). In 2012 he was chosen as a winner of the Soil Science
Society of America’s International Soil Science Award, and in 2013 he
was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science. He is chair of the International Committee on Bioavailability
and Risk Assessment and was chair of the Standards Australia Technical
Committee on Sampling and Analyses of Contaminated Soils (1999–2000),
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