Environmental Hydrogeology
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C.V. de Boer (Cjestmir)
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Environmental Hydrogeology Group
Department of Earth Sciences
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Utrecht
P.O. Box 80021
3508 TA UTRECHT
Email: C.V.deBoer[AT]students[DOT]uu[DOT]nl
M.Sc. research
Subject: Feasibility Study for the use of injected iron colloids as a remediation technique for chlorinated hydrocarbons
Location: VEGAS institute, Stuttgart University (Germany)
Supervisors: Ruud Schotting, Norbert Klaas (Stuttgart)
Short research description:
To remediate a plume of dissolved chlorinated hydrocarbons, elementary iron (Fe0) can be used. It is currently widely used in Permeable Reactive Barriers.
In my research, comparable to a Permeable Reactive Barrier system, a reactive wall - perpendicular to the flow direction and on the full cross-section of the contamination plume - will be created.
This will not be done by digging and replacing the ground with new ground containing the elementary iron, but by injecting nano-sized iron colloids in the ground.
The result should be comparable with reactive barriers which are currently used to remediate dissolved chlorinated hydrocarbons (e.g. PCE, TCE).
In collaboration with Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK) these nano-sized iron colloids are being developed. In the past some experiments were done, the results were not satisfactory and thus the iron colloids have been further developed and improved.
In the VEGAS institute (Versuchseinrichtung zur Grundwasser- und Altlastensanierung) of the Stuttgart University I will do 2-D and 3-D experiments. With these experiments I will try to find the best method of injecting the colloids such that the complete cross-section of the contamination plume is covered.
The results of my experiments should give an indication for the suitability of these new colloids and the feasibility for the method as a whole on a field scale problem.
More information:
http://cjestmir.blogspot.com
http://www.cjestmir.com/study
