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

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

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 (R 2 = 0.9074) and COD (R 2 = 0.8877), while the m n of AC was negatively linear with adsorbed ammonium (R 2 = 0.8192) and COD (R 2 = 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1
JournalEnvironmental Geochemistry and Health
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2024

Keywords

  • Activated carbon
  • Monitoring
  • MSW groundwater
  • Permeable reactive barrier
  • Spectral induced polarization
  • Zeolite

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Water Science and Technology
  • General Environmental Science
  • Geochemistry and Petrology

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