Table Of ContentWater Science and Engineering BN Permeable
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Permeable
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Reactive Barrier
Reactive
Sustainable Groundwater Remediation
Edited by Ravi Naidu and Volker Birke P
e
Remediation of groundwater is complex and often challenging. But the cost
r Barrier
of pump and treat technology, coupled with the dismal results achieved, has
m
paved the way for newer, better technologies to be developed. Among these
techniques is permeable reactive barrier (PRB) technology, which allows
e
groundwater to pass through a buried porous barrier that either captures the
a
contaminants or breaks them down. And although this approach is gaining
popularity, there are few references available on the subject until now. b
Sustainable Groundwater Remediation
Permeable Reactive Barrier: Sustainable Groundwater Remediation
l
e
brings together the information required to plan, design/model, and apply a
successful, cost-effective, and sustainable PRB technology.
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With contributions from pioneers in this area, the book covers state-of-the-art
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information on PRB technology. It details design criteria, predictive modeling,
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and application to contaminants beyond petroleum hydrocarbons, including
inorganics and radionuclides. The text also examines implementation c
stages such as the initial feasibility assessment, laboratory treatability
t
studies (including column studies), estimation of PRB design parameters, i
v
and development of a long-term monitoring network for the performance
e
evaluation of the barrier. It also outlines the predictive tools required for life
cycle analysis and cost/performance assessment.
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A review of current PRB technology and its applications, this book includes
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case studies that exemplify the concepts discussed. It helps you determine when
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to recommend PRB, what information is needed from the site investigation to
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design it, and what regulatory validation is required.
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K22374 Edited by Ravi Naidu and Volker Birke
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K22374 cvr mech.indd 1 11/10/14 9:59 AM
Permeable
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
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2015 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
No claim to original U.S. Government works
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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
v
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
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.
