Monitoring the remediation of groundwater polluted by MSW landfill leachates by activated carbon and zeolite with spectral induced polarization technique

Yi-Xin Yang; Sheng Zhou; Yuan-Yuan Luo; Jia-Kai Chen; Ze-Jian Chen; Jun-Nan Cao; Chi Zhang; Shuai Zhang; Liang-Tong Zhan; Yun-Min Chen; Bate Bate

doi:10.1007/s10653-023-01796-1

Monitoring the remediation of groundwater polluted by MSW landfill leachates by activated carbon and zeolite with spectral induced polarization technique

Environ Geochem Health. 2023 Dec 8;46(1):1. doi: 10.1007/s10653-023-01796-1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
³ Department of Civil Engineering and Construction, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, USA.
⁴ Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁵ Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. batebate@zju.edu.cn.

PMID: 38063932
DOI: 10.1007/s10653-023-01796-1

Abstract

The municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill in Hangzhou, China utilized zeolite and activated carbon (AC) as permeable reactive barrier (PRB) fill materials to remediate groundwater contaminated with MSW leachates containing ammonium, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and heavy metals. The spectral induced polarization (SIP) technique was chosen for monitoring the PRB because of its sensitivity to pore fluid chemistry and mineral-fluid interface composition. During the experiment, authentic groundwater collected from the landfill site was used to permeate two columns filled with zeolite and AC, and the SIP responses were measured at the inlet and outlet over a frequency range of 0.01-1000 Hz. The results showed that zeolite had a higher adsorption capacity for COD (7.08 mg/g) and ammonium (9.15 mg/g) compared to AC (COD: 2.75 mg/g, ammonium: 1.68 mg/g). Cation exchange was found to be the mechanism of ammonium adsorption for both zeolite and AC, while FTIR results indicated that π-complexation, π-π interaction, and electrostatic attraction were the main mechanisms of COD adsorption. The Cole-Cole model was used to fit the SIP responses and determine the relaxation time (τ) and normalized chargeability (m_n). The calculated characteristic diameters of zeolite and AC based on the Schwarz equation and relaxation time (τ) matched the pore sizes observed from SEM and MIP, providing valuable information on contaminant distribution. The m_n of zeolite was positively linear with adsorbed ammonium (R² = 0.9074) and COD (R² = 0.8877), while the m_n of AC was negatively linear with adsorbed ammonium (R² = 0.8192) and COD (R² = 0.7916), suggesting that m_n could serve as a surrogate for contaminant saturation. The laboratory-based real-time non-invasive SIP results showed good performance in monitoring saturation and provide a strong foundation for future field PRB monitoring.

Keywords: Activated carbon; MSW groundwater; Monitoring; Permeable reactive barrier; Spectral induced polarization; Zeolite.

MeSH terms

Ammonium Compounds*
Charcoal
Groundwater* / chemistry
Solid Waste
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis
Zeolites* / chemistry

Substances

Solid Waste
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Zeolites
Charcoal
Ammonium Compounds

Abstract

MeSH terms

Substances

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