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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 44462

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Marco Petrangeli Papini

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Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: groundwater remediation; in situ technologies; combined chemical-physical and biological processes; adsorption processes; transport and fate of contaminants in soil and aquifers
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Prof. Tiziana Tosco

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Guest Editor

Politecnico di Torino, DIATI - Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering
Interests: groundwater engineering; remediation of contaminated sites; flow and transport modelling in porous media; colloid transport; nanoparticles for groundwater remediation

Prof. Dr. Paolo Viotti

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: groundwater pollution; long term contamination sources; transport processes in soil and subsoil; unsaturated zone; NAPL
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The contamination of soils and groundwaters is a widely faced problem. Most industrialized nations from risks in the use of groundwater for drinking supply or for irrigational use, and soils are often unusable due to specific contamination. Difficulties are encountered in the understanding of the phenomena occurring in soil and subsoil, bringing uncertainties in the application of new technology on-site.

This Special Issue focuses on innovative technologies, integrated approaches, and the critical discussion of complex case studies of the remediation of contaminated sites. Contributions are encouraged that present studies related to the different stages of soil and groundwater remediation: modeling and experimental studies aimed at deepening the understanding of contamination processes, and the interactions of pollutants with the environmental matrices; experimental works involving the use of novel reactants aimed at improving knowledge on the basic processes of contaminant transport and dispersion; the development of innovative technologies and methodologies and their pilot/full-scale applications; the development and validation of modeling tools to support design of remediation activities; and the development of a new generation of remediation technologies with a lower impact on the environmental matrices, also in the framework of the sustainable remediation.

Prof. Marco Petrangeli Papini
Prof. Tiziana Tosco
Prof. Paolo Viotti
Guest Editors

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Keywords

groundwater modelling
soil and groundwater contamination
remediation technologies
experimental lab studies
sustainable remediation
contaminated sites
pilot studies
full-scale case studies

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4278 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Assessment of Long-Term Fermentability of PHA-Based Materials from Pure and Mixed Microbial Cultures for Potential Environmental Applications

by Neda Amanat, Bruna Matturro, Marta Maria Rossi, Francesco Valentino, Marianna Villano and Marco Petrangeli Papini

Water 2021, 13(7), 897; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070897 - 25 Mar 2021

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3953

Abstract

The use of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as slow-release electron donors for environmental remediation represents a novel and appealing application that is attracting considerable attention in the scientific community. In this context, here, the fermentation pattern of different types of PHA-based materials has been investigated in batch and continuous-flow experiments. Along with commercially available materials, produced from axenic microbial cultures, PHA produced at pilot scale by mixed microbial cultures (MMC) using waste feedstock have been also tested. As a main finding, a rapid onset of volatile fatty acids (VFA) production was observed with a low-purity MMC-deriving material, consisting of microbial cells containing 56% (on weight basis) of intracellular PHA. Indeed, with this material a sustained, long-term production of organic acids (i.e., acetic, propionic, and butyric acids) was observed. In addition, the obtained yield of conversion into acids (up to 70% gVFA/gPHA) was higher than that obtained with the other tested materials, made of extracted and purified PHA. These results clearly suggest the possibility to directly use the PHA-rich cells deriving from the MMC production process, with no need of extraction and purification procedures, as a sustainable and effective carbon source bringing remarkable advantages from an economic and environmental point of view. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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16 pages, 3438 KiB

Open AccessArticle

1,2-DCA Natural Attenuation Evaluation in Groundwater: Insight by Dual Isotope ¹³C/³⁷Cl and Molecular Analysis Approach

by Giovanna Carpani, Massimo Marchesi, Ilaria Pietrini, Luca Alberti, Luciano Massimo Zaninetta, Orfan Shouakar-Stash and Francesca de Ferra

Water 2021, 13(5), 728; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050728 - 7 Mar 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3529

Abstract

Natural attenuation (NA) processes represent a valuable option in groundwater remediation. At a heavily 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) contaminated site, Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis (CSIA) in combination with Biological Molecular Tools (BMTs) were implemented as a rigorous characterization approach to evaluate the occurrence of Natural Attenuation in the proximity of the source area. By the use of microcosm experiments, the potential for natural and enhanced biodegradation under anaerobic conditions was documented, following the dichloroelimination pathway. Enrichment factors of −9.1‰ and −11.3‰ were obtained for ¹³C while Geobacter spp. and reductive dehalogenase genes (rdhs) were identified as main site-specific biomarkers. At pilot scale, enrichments of 13.5‰ and 6.3‰ for δ¹³C and δ³⁷Cl, respectively, high levels of reductive dehalogenase (rdh group VI) along with the dominance of Geobacter spp. indicated the occurrence of significant dichloroelimination processes in groundwater under anaerobic conditions. By using the site-specific enrichment factors, degradation extents over approximately 70–80% were estimated, highlighting the relevant potential of NA in 1,2-DCA degradation in the vicinity of the source area at the site. The proposed fine-tuned protocol, including CSIA and BMTs, is proven to be effective as a groundwater remediation strategy, properly assessing and monitoring NA at site scale. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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20 pages, 10289 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Remediating Contaminated Groundwater with an Aerated, Direct-Push, Oxidant Delivery System

by James Reece, Mark Christenson, Ann Kambhu, Yusong Li, Clifford E. Harris and Steve Comfort

Water 2020, 12(12), 3383; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12123383 - 2 Dec 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4709

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges to treating contaminated aquifers with chemical oxidants is achieving uniform coverage of the target zone. In an effort to maximize coverage, we report the design and installation of a novel aerated, slow-release oxidant delivery system that can be installed by direct-push equipment. By continuously bubbling air beneath a slow-release oxidant in situ, an airlift pump is created that causes water and oxidant to be dispersed from the top of the outer screen and drawn in at the bottom. This continuous circulation pattern around each drive point greatly facilitates the spreading of the oxidant as it slowly dissolves from the wax matrix (i.e., oxidant candle). Given that the aeration rate controls the outward flow of oxidant from the outer screen in all directions, the radius of influence around each drive point is largely a function of the outward velocity of the oxidant exiting the screen and the advection rate opposing the upgradient and lateral spreading. Temporal sampling from three field sites treated with the aerated oxidant system are presented and results show that contaminant concentrations typically decreased 50–99% within 6–9 months after installation. Supporting flow tank experiments that demonstrate oxidant flow patterns and treatment efficacy are also presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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25 pages, 5870 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analytical and Numerical Methods for a Preliminary Assessment of the Remediation Time of Pump and Treat Systems

by Matteo Antelmi, Francesca Renoldi and Luca Alberti

Water 2020, 12(10), 2850; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12102850 - 13 Oct 2020

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3994

Abstract

Several remediation technologies are currently used to address groundwater pollution. “Pump and treat” (P&T) is probably one of the most widely applied, being a process where contaminated groundwater is extracted from the subsurface by pumping and then treated before it is discharged or reinjected into the aquifer. Despite being a very adaptable technology, groundwater remediation is often achieved in long and unsustainable times because of limitations due to the hydrogeological setting and contaminant properties. Therefore, the cost–benefit analysis over time results in an inefficient system and a preliminary evaluation of the clean-up time is crucial. The aim of the paper is to compare, in an integrated manner, the application of some models to estimate the time to compliance of a P&T system in relation to the specific hydrogeological condition. Analytical solutions are analyzed and applied to an industrial site and to a synthetic case. For both cases, batch flushing and the advection-dispersion-retardation (ADR) model underestimate remediation times comparing the results to real or simulated monitoring data, whereas the Square Root model provided more reliable remediation times. Finally, for the synthetic case, the reliability of analytical approaches and the effects of matrix diffusion are tested on the basis of a numerical groundwater transport model specifically implemented, which confirm the results of the analytical methods and the strong influence of the matrix diffusion on the results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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20 pages, 4790 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Accelerating Contaminant Transport Simulation in MT3DMS Using JASMIN-Based Parallel Computing

by Xingwei Liu, Qiulan Zhang and Tangpei Cheng

Water 2020, 12(5), 1480; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051480 - 22 May 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4127

Abstract

To overcome the large time and memory consumption problems in large-scale high-resolution contaminant transport simulations, an efficient approach was presented to parallelize the modular three-dimensional transport model for multi-species (MT3DMS) (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA) program on J adaptive structured meshes applications infrastructures (JASMIN). In this approach, a domain decomposition method and a stencil-based method were used to accomplish parallel implementation, while a ghost cell strategy was used for communication. The MODFLOW-MT3DMS coupling mode was optimized to achieve the parallel coupling of flow and contaminant transport. Five types of models were used to verify the correctness and test the parallel performance of the method. The developed parallel program JMT3D (China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, China) can increase the speed by up to 31.7 times, save memory consumption by 96% with 46 processors, and ensure that the solution accuracy and convergence do not decrease as the number of domains increases. The BiCGSTAB (Bi-conjugate gradient variant algorithm) method required the least amount of time and achieved high speedup in most cases. Coupling the flow and contaminant transport further improved the efficiency of the simulations, with a 33.45 times higher speedup achieved on 46 processors. The AMG (algebraic multigrid) method achieved a good scalability, with an efficiency above 100% on hundreds of processors for the simulation of tens of millions of cells. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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12 pages, 1933 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

A Large-Scale 3D Study on Transport of Humic Acid-Coated Goethite Nanoparticles for Aquifer Remediation

by Milica Velimirovic, Carlo Bianco, Natalia Ferrantello, Tiziana Tosco, Alessandro Casasso, Rajandrea Sethi, Doris Schmid, Stephan Wagner, Kumiko Miyajima, Norbert Klaas, Rainer U. Meckenstock, Frank von der Kammer and Thilo Hofmann

Water 2020, 12(4), 1207; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12041207 - 24 Apr 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5487

Abstract

Humic acid-coated goethite nanoparticles (HA-GoeNPs) have been recently proposed as an effective reagent for the in situ nanoremediation of contaminated aquifers. However, the effective dosage of these particles has been studied only at laboratory scale to date. This study investigates the possibility of using HA-GoeNPs in remediation of real field sites by mimicking the injection and transport of HA-GoeNPs under realistic conditions. To this purpose, a three-dimensional (3D) transport experiment was conducted in a large-scale container representing a heterogeneous unconfined aquifer. Monitoring data, including particle size distribution, total iron (Fe_tot) content and turbidity measurements, revealed a good subsurface mobility of the HA-GoeNP suspension, especially within the higher permeability zones. A radius of influence of 2 m was achieved, proving that HA-GoeNPs delivery is feasible for aquifer restoration. A flow and transport model of the container was built using the numerical code Micro and Nanoparticle transport Model in 3D geometries (MNM3D) to predict the particle behavior during the experiment. The agreement between modeling and experimental results validated the capability of the model to reproduce the HA-GoeNP transport in a 3D heterogeneous aquifer. Such result confirms MNM3D as a valuable tool to support the design of field-scale applications of goethite-based nanoremediation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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21 pages, 6705 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Capping Strategy and Water Balance on Salt Movement in Oil Sands Reclamation Soils

by Xiaopeng Li, Bin Ma, Bonnie Drozdowski, Francis Salifu and Scott X. Chang

Water 2020, 12(2), 512; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020512 - 13 Feb 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2613

Abstract

The success of oil sands reclamation can be impacted by soil salinity depending on the materials used for soil reconstruction and the capping strategies applied. Using both a greenhouse-based column experiment and numerical modeling, we examined the potential pathways of salt migration from saline groundwater into the rooting zone under different capping strategies (the type and the thickness of the barrier layer) and water balance scenarios. The experimental results showed that there would be salinity issues in the cover soil within several growing seasons if there was a shallow saline groundwater table and if the soil was not properly reconstructed. The thickness of the barrier layer was the most significant factor affecting the upward movement of saline groundwater and salt accumulation in the cover soil. The suitable thickness of the barrier layer for preventing the upward movement of saline groundwater and salt accumulation in the cover soil for each material varied. A numerical simulation for a 15-year period further indicates that, when the cover soil was 50 cm of peat-mineral soil mix and when wet, dry, or normal climatic conditions were considered, the minimum barrier thickness to restrain salt intrusion into the cover soil in the long term was about 75 or 200 cm for coarse tailings sand or overburden barrier material, respectively. In view of the above, to minimize salt migration into the rooting zone and ensure normal plant growth, oil sands reclamation should consider salt migration when designing soil capping strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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20 pages, 1908 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Can We Make Pump and Treat Systems More Energetically Sustainable?

by Alessandro Casasso, Tiziana Tosco, Carlo Bianco, Arianna Bucci and Rajandrea Sethi

Water 2020, 12(1), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010067 - 23 Dec 2019

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 6330

Abstract

Pump and treat (P&T) systems are still widely employed for the hydraulic containment of contaminated groundwater despite the fact that their usage is decreasing due to their high operational costs. A way to partially mitigate such costs, both in monetary and environmental terms, is to perform heat exchange (directly or with a heat pump) on the groundwater extracted by these systems, thus providing low-carbon and low-cost heating and/or cooling to buildings or industrial processes. This opportunity should be carefully evaluated in view of preserving (or even improving) the removal efficiency of the remediation process. Therefore, the heat exchange should be placed upstream or downstream of all treatments, or in an intermediate position, depending on the effect of water temperature change on the removal efficiency of each treatment step. This article provides an overview of such effects and is meant to serve as a starting reference for a case-by-case evaluation. Finally, the potentiality of geothermal use of P&T systems is assessed in the Italian contaminated Sites of National Interest (SIN), i.e., the 41 priority contaminated sites in Italy. At least 29 of these sites use pumping wells as hydraulic barriers or P&T systems. The total discharge rate treated by these plants exceeds 7000 m³/h and can potentially provide about 33 MW of heating and/or cooling power. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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13 pages, 2314 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pilot-Scale Evaluation of a Permeable Reactive Barrier with Compost and Brown Coal to Treat Groundwater Contaminated with Trichloroethylene

by S. Johana Grajales-Mesa and Grzegorz Malina

Water 2019, 11(9), 1922; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11091922 - 14 Sep 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3613

Abstract

This study evaluates, under field conditions, the efficiency of a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) with compost and brown coal to remove trichloroethylene (TCE) (109 µg/L) from contaminated groundwater. Three stainless steel boxes (1.2 × 0.5 × 0.5 m) with the brown coal-compost mixture at three different mixing ratios of 1:1, 1:3, and 1:5 (by volume) were installed to simulate the PRB. Groundwater from the TCE-contaminated aquifer was pumped into the system at a flow rate of 3.6 L/h. Residence times in the boxes were of: 25, 20, 10 h, respectively. Effluent samples were analyzed for TCE and its daughter products: dichloroethylene (DCE), vinyl chloride (VC) and ethane. During the 198-day experimental period TCE concentrations in groundwater decreased below ≤1.1 µg/L, i.e., much lower than groundwater and drinking water standards in Poland. After 16 days cis-1,2-DCE was monitored indicating possible reductive dechlorination of TCE. However, complete transformation of TCE into non-toxic byproducts was not evidenced during the time of experiments, indicating that reductive dechlorination slowed down or stopped at DCE, and that the designed residence times were not long enough to allow the complete dechlorination process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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17 pages, 5894 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hydrogeochemical Model Supporting the Remediation Strategy of a Highly Contaminated Industrial Site

by Paolo Ciampi, Carlo Esposito and Marco Petrangeli Papini

Water 2019, 11(7), 1371; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071371 - 3 Jul 2019

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 4818

Abstract

Delineation and understanding the geology and the hydrogeology of a contaminated site, considering its chemical and its biological aspects, are fundamental requirements for successful environmental remediation. The aim of this research is to provide some evidence about the effectiveness of a hydrogeochemical geodatabase to facilitate the integrated management, representation and analysis of heterogeneous data, enabling the appropriate selection, design and optimization of an effective remediation strategy. This study investigates a new technology for the remediation of a dense non-aqueous phase liquid aged source zone, with the aim of enhancing in situ bioremediation by coupling groundwater circulation wells with a continuous production system of electron donors. The technology was verified through a pilot test carried out at an industrial site highly contaminated by chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons. The multidisciplinary conceptual model confirmed a complex hydrogeological situation, with the occurrence of active residual sources in low permeability layers. The pilot test results clearly demonstrate a significant mobilization of contaminants from the low permeability zone, and the possibility of favoring the in situ natural attenuation mechanisms based upon biological reductive dechlorination. Different information related to the hydrogeochemical sphere must be integrated and taken into consideration when developing a reliable remediation strategy for contaminated sites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Groundwater and Soil Remediation)

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