A Comparison between Pump & Treat Technique and Permeable Reactive Barriers for the Remediation of Groundwater Contaminated by Chlorinated Organic Compounds

Abstract

This paper deals with the design and the preliminary optimization of the remediation of a Tetrachloroethylene (PCE)-contaminated aquifer by Pump and Treat technique (P&T) or Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB). The experimental site is located near a solid waste landfill in the metropolitan area North of Naples (Italy) where a considerable amount of solid waste has been deposited over the past decades. For both remediation technologies, adsorption onto granular activated carbon was adopted to remove PCE from water. In particular, a comparison of the results obtained, both in terms of efficacy of pollutant removal and the corresponding preliminary overall cost, was conducted. The design of both remediation techniques was conducted by using a commercial 3D hydrodynamic code to simulate groundwater flow and contamination transport and a second code, developed by the authors, to describe the adsorption phenomena involving the pollutant.