NAPL-aqueous phase mass transfer in heterogeneous porous media

Abstract Despite recent advances in the understanding of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL)-aqueous mass transfer, there is still a relatively poor understanding of the process at the laboratory scale and especially at the field-scale. In this work, we briefly summarize some of these limitations while focusing on heterogeneous, field-scale problems. We conclude that media heterogeneity plays a significant role in determining the morphology of the NAPL residual distribution, and this in turn plays a significant role in determining mass transfer from the NAPL residual. We review the factors affecting the NAPL residual morphology and use a high-resolution compositional modelling approach to simulate the dissolution process. Flow-field complexities affecting NAPL-aqueous phase mass transfer are demonstrated based upon simulations performed using this model