Reactive transport in porous media: a comparison of model prediction with laboratory visualization

Environ Sci Technol. 2002 Jun 1;36(11):2508-14. doi: 10.1021/es0157144.

Abstract

Groundwater transport models that accurately describe spreading of nonreactive solutes in an aquifer can poorly predict concentrations of reactive solutes. The dispersive term in the advection-dispersion equation can overpredict pore-scale mixing, and thereby overpredict homogeneous chemical reaction. We quantified this experimentally by imaging instantaneous colorimetric reactions between solutions of aqueous CuSO4 and EDTA4- within a 30-cm long translucent chamber packed with cryolite sand that closely matched the optical index of refraction of water. A charge-coupled device camera was used to quantify concentrations of blue CuEDTA2- within the chamber as it was produced by mixing of the two reactants at different flow rates. We compared these experimental results with a new analytic solution for instantaneous bimolecular reaction coupled with advection and dispersion of the product and reactants. For all flow rates, the concentrations of CuEDTA2- recorded in the experiments were about 20% less than predicted by the analytic solution, thereby demonstrating that models assuming complete mixing at the pore scale can overpredict reaction during transport.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Chelating Agents / analysis
  • Chelating Agents / chemistry
  • Copper Sulfate / analysis
  • Copper Sulfate / chemistry
  • Edetic Acid / analysis
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Porosity
  • Soil Pollutants / analysis*
  • Solubility
  • Water Pollutants / analysis*
  • Water Supply

Substances

  • Chelating Agents
  • Soil Pollutants
  • Water Pollutants
  • Edetic Acid
  • Copper Sulfate