Modeling biodegradation of organic pollutants during transport through permeable reactive bio-walls

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:576693

Malusis, M A; Shackelford, C D ^[1]

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1. Colorado State Univ., Ft. Collins, CO (United States)

One-dimensional solute transport through a permeable reactive bio-wall (PRB) (i.e., a permeable reactive wall with microbial reagents) is simulated in this study using the advection-dispersion equation with a biodegradation sink term. The biodegradation process is modeled using either linear, first-order kinetics or the Monod non-linear kinetics expression. Solute breakthrough curves for first-order and Monod kinetics are compared for a range of influent pollutant concentrations (c{sub 0}) and for different values of microbial mass (M{sub t}) using typical PRB design values and Monod growth parameters ({mu}{sub max}, K{sub c}). The results indicate that values of pollutant concentration downgradient of a PRW predicted using first-order and Monod kinetics are similar when c{sub 0} is small relative to K{sub c} (ie., when K{sub c}/c{sub 0} {ge} 10.0) and/or when M{sub t} is large such that {beta} = {mu}{sub max}M{sub t}/K{sub c}{ge} 5.0. However, first-order kinetics provides unconservative estimates of the downgradient concentration for smaller K{sub c}/c{sub 0} or {beta} and, therefore, should be used with caution.

• Research Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 576693
• Report Number(s): CONF-970208--Proc.; ON: DE98001967
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
55 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
BASIC STUDIES
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ADVECTION
BIODEGRADATION
CONTAINMENT
DESIGN
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
POLLUTANTS