Interwell tests for the in-situ characterization of NAPL zones
- INTERA Inc., Austin, TX (United States). Chemical Hydrogeology Group
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
Two kinds of interwell test are described. The first is the partitioning interwell tracer test in which a suite of tracers are injected in one or more wells and subsequently extracted from other wells in a well field. Conservative (i.e., nonpartitioning tracers) pass unretarded through the NAPL zone, whereas the partitioning tracers are retarded due to their partitioning into and from the NAPL. In the unsaturated zone of an aquifer the tracers employed are gases, whereas liquid tracers (e.g., alcohols) are used in the saturated zone. The chromatographic separation of the tracers due to this partitioning is used to measure the volume of NAPL in the interwell zone. Therefore, the partitioning tracer test allows the detection and volume estimation of NAPL. A particularly important application of the test is remediation performance assessment, i.e., the testing of the volume of NAPL before and after a remediation experiment or operation. The second interwell test of use to hydrogeologists is the NAPL solubilization test which uses micellar surfactant or cosolvent solutions to detect and compositionally characterize a NAPL zone by enhancing the solubility of the components forming the NAPL mixture. Therefore, the two tests permit the characterization of a NAPL zone and its remediation in terms of NAPL detection, the delineation of the geometry of the NAPL zone, volume estimation, compositional analysis and remediation performance assessment.
- OSTI ID:
- 122425
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9510211--
- Journal Information:
- Ground Water, Journal Name: Ground Water Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 33; ISSN GRWAAP; ISSN 0017-467X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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