Mass transport and microbial oxidation of hydrophobic organic compounds in porous media

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:5830724

Luthy, R G; Ghoshal, S; Ramaswami, A ^[1]

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1. Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of Civil Engineering

This study addresses the microbial oxidation of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) in porous media with application to remediation of contaminated soil. The microbial oxidation of HOCs sorbed onto soil may be limited by rates of desorption and intra-particle diffusion. Likewise, for HOCs associated with non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in porous media, the rate of microbial oxidation may be limited by rates of solubilization followed by sorption-retarded diffusion. This paper describes the current state of knowledge regarding such conditions under which the rate of microbial degradation of HOCs in porous media may be limited by physicochemical phenomena, rather than by explicit biokinetic phenomena. Current work is evaluating the microbial mineralization of aromatic compounds that are released from coal tar NAPL at residual saturation in microporous silica. The objective is to develop an integrated model that incorporates the effects of physicochemical mass transfer processes in the overall rate of biotransformation of organic solute. Experiments are in progress to measure rates of biomineralization and aqueous-phase dissolution of naphthalene released from coal tar NAPL imbibed in microporous silica. These data will be used to verify the utility of the mathematical model, and the relative importance of different mass transfer mechanisms as described by dimensionless groups, i.e., Thiele moduli, Biot number, and Damkohler number.

• OSTI ID: 5830724
• Report Number(s): CONF-921058--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 24:7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010900* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Environmental Aspects
560300 -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AROMATICS
BIODEGRADATION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COAL TAR
CONDENSED AROMATICS
DECOMPOSITION
DISSOLUTION
HYDROCARBONS
LAND RECLAMATION
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NAPHTHALENE
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PLANNING
SOILS
SORPTION
TAR