Acoustically enhanced remediation, Phase 2: Technology scaling

Weiss Associates is conducting the following three phase program investigating the in-situ application of acoustically enhanced remediation (AER) of contaminated unconsolidated soil and ground water under both saturated and unsaturated conditions: Phase I-- laboratory scale parametric investigation; Phase II--technology Scaling; and Phase III--large scale field tests. AER addresses the need for NAPL (either lighter or denser than water: LNAPL or DNAPL, respectively) in high and low permeability sediments, and the remediation of other types of subsurface contaminants (e.g., metals, radionuclides) in low permeability soils. This program has been placed in the U.S. Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) DNAPL product. Phase I indicated that AER could be used to effectively remediate NAPL in high permeability soil, and that removal of NAPL from low permeability soil could be increased since the water flux through these soils was significantly increased. Phase II, Technology Scaling, the subject of this paper, focused on (1) evaluating the characteristics of an AER field deployment system, (2) developing DNAPL flow and transport performance data under acoustic excitation, (3) predicting the effect of acoustic remediation in three-dimensional unconsolidated hydrogeologic conditions, (4) conducting an engineering analysis of acoustical sources, and (5) identifying candidate field site(s) for large-scale field testing of the technology