The Use Of Zero-Valent Iron And Ultrasonic Energy For In-Situ Groundwater Remediation

Contamination in groundwater in general and drinking water in particular has become a major concern in the twentieth century. EPA strictly regulates the amount of acceptable contamination to extremely low levels for chemical industries. Old techniques, such as pump-and-treat, has proven to have some limitation in dropping the concentrations to acceptable levels thus forcing research groups to look into other alternatives for groundwater remediation. A new technique is to implement an in situ treatment of groundwater depending mainly on the natural water flow through a treatment wall. This active wall would consist of zero-valent-iron, with high surface area to mass ratio, in order to accelerate the kinetics of the dehalogenation of chlorinated organic molecules, mainly trichloroethylene TCE, into environmentally acceptable hydrocarbons that can be consumed by microorganisms underground. In addition, ultrasonic chemistry is co-applied in order to replenish the oxidized metal surface area i.e. to help in maintaining wall activity which theoretically should increase the wall lifetime. Data from both batch and column reactions show the feasibility of such a procedure. Kinetic data will be presented