[Truncated abstract] An ethanol delivery system, consisting of silicone (poly(dimethylsiloxane)) tubing coiled and shaped as mats, was characterised and evaluated for its potential to act as a permeable reactive barrier (PRB), to promote reducing conditions and enable the enhanced bioremediation of a variety of groundwater contaminants in situ. Aqueous ethanol solutions were recirculated through the inner volume of the silicone polymer tubing in the mat, to allow permeation and delivery of ethanol by diffusion through the tubing walls to a target contamination zone. The aim of the system was to provide control over subsurface geochemistry by overcoming carbon source limitations, and as a result stimulate indigenous bacteria to remove contaminants. The physical properties of the silicone tubing were initially characterised, which included the determination of the ethanol sorption and diffusion properties of the tubing. A model for the mass of ethanol transferred via diffusion from an aqueous solution on the inner volume of a length of polymer tubing was developed to enable prediction of the ethanol delivery capacity of the silicone polymer mats. A number of large-scale laboratory column studies were then conducted to validate this ethanol mass delivery model, and to evaluate the use of silicone polymer mats to deliver ethanol and promote the biodegradation of a range of different contaminated groundwaters. The laboratory column experiments were observed to produce ethanol mass flux delivery statistically similar to that predicted by the model; however this was only with the application of an effective diffusion coefficient within the model, which was determined from the model under subsurface-simulated conditions. Ethanol delivery using the silicone tubing polymer mat system was also quantified in a pilot field-scale demonstration. The mass of ethanol delivery in the field was shown to be within the range of model-predicted ethanol delivery; however delivery was not as consistent and predictable as that observed in the column studies. Successful ethanol enhanced nitrate contamination removal (via denitrification) was observed at a field scale. For field applications, this innovative polymer mat amendment delivery system may provide targeted, predictable and cost-effective amendment delivery compared to aqueous injection methods for groundwater bioremediation, however, knowledge and quantification of the hydrogeology of the particular field site is required. Two other ethanol-driven biologically-mediated contaminant removal processes were also investigated in the laboratory-scale soil column studies, and included the assessment of the removal of dissolved metals/sulfate via sulfate reduction and metalsulfide precipitation, and the removal of trichloroethene via reductive dechlorination.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221105 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Grassi, Michelle Elenore |
| Publisher | University of Western Australia. School of Biomedical and Chemical Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Michelle Elenore Grassi, http://www.itpo.uwa.edu.au/UWA-Computer-And-Software-Use-Regulations.html |
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