Pressure dewatering: An extension of bioventing technology

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:467744

Reisinger, H J; Mountain, S A; Hullman, A S; Darnall, A W ^[1]; Montney, P A ^[2]

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1. Integrated Science and Technology, Inc., Marietta, GA (United States)
2. Georgia-Pacific Corp., Newark, NJ (United States)

Over the past several years, bioventing has become one of the most widely applied and cost-effective means of remediating vadose-zone soils impacted with petroleum hydrocarbons. In the course of bioventing, air is injected into the subsurface under pressure. This application of pressure locally depresses the water table (i.e., pressure dewatering). Pressure dewatering and subsequent gravity drainage have a number of positive impacts that extend the overall utility of the bioventing technology. Water-table depression exposes a greater portion of the subsurface to the injected air. This then not only increases the pore volume open for air distribution, thereby increasing the radius of influence and zone of remediation, but also opens the smear zone to airflow, which allows for increased biodegradation of this significant secondary source. In the course of operating full-scale bioventing systems, improvement in groundwater quality has been observed at higher rates than could be attributed to vadose zone remediation alone. Data generated sin the course of monitoring these systems have shown that a factor responsible for this improvement is water-table depression as a result of pressure application and a concomitant increase of biological activity in the smear zone.

• OSTI ID: 467744
• Report Number(s): CONF-950483--; ISBN 1-57477-003-9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
BIODEGRADATION
GAS INJECTION
HYDROCARBONS
IN-SITU PROCESSING
REMEDIAL ACTION
WATER REMOVAL