HR: 12:05h
AN: B22A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Experimental visualization and modeling of biodegradation at the plume fringe gradient
AU: * Oswald, S E
EM: sascha.oswald@ufz.de
AF: UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle, Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 4, Halle/Saale, D-06120 Germany
AU: Banwart, S A
EM: s.a.banwart@sheffield.ac.uk
AF: Groundwater Protection and Restoration Group Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD United Kingdom
AU: Rees, H C
EM: h.c.rees@sheffield.ac.uk
AF: Groundwater Protection and Restoration Group Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD United Kingdom
AB: Biodegradation of organic contaminants via consumption of electron acceptors happens often at the fringe of contaminant plumes in groundwater. The dispersive mixing at the biogeochemical gradient there has an important influence on the degradation that is limited by the supply of electron acceptors and the maximum utilization rate of the microbial population present at the gradient. We have performed two-dimensional laboratory experiments to study this situation non-invasively in detail. Reactive experiments with acetate and phenol as contaminant are compared to non-reactive experiments. The numerical modelling has not only to take care of the actual processes but also handle numerical dispersion, e.g. to avoid artificially high degradation rates. The study aims for identifying the correct conceptual approach to describe the biodegradation at the gradient most accurately. Since dispersion and biodegradation may not act independently from each other, another experimental approach via Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging is proposed to explore this potential coupling at the pore scale.
DE: 1009 Geochemical modeling (3610, 8410)
DE: 1094 Instruments and techniques
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques: modeling
DE: 4803 Analytical chemistry
DE: 4894 Instruments, sensors, and techniques
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005