Permeable Adsorbing Barrier for Groundwater Protection from Single-Compounds and Multicomponent Contamination by Chlorinated Organic Compounds

Abstract

This work deals with the application of a Permeable Adsorbing Barrier (PAB) for the remediation of an aquifer contaminated by Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and Trichloroethylene (TCE). Based on a hydrological and geotechnical characterization of the entire polluted aquifer, the design and optimization of the barrier parameters (location, orientation and dimensions) are defined by an iterative procedure using a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) approach. Laboratory adsorption tests on binary system (i.e. PCE+TCE) on a commercial activated carbon are carried out to support the PAB design. A site located near a solid waste landfill in the metropolitan area North of Naples (Italy), where PCE and TCE are simultaneously present, is considered as a case study. Model results show that the PAB designed is effective for the remediation of the contaminated aquifer, both for single-compound and binary contamination, since the concentration of pollutants flowing out of the barrier is everywhere always lower than the concentration limits provided for Italian regulations on groundwater quality.