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Permeable Reactive Barrier Monitoring

Cross-borehole mapping of a Permeable Reactive Barrier

At contaminated sites in urban environments, pollution sources can be multiple, not exactly located and hardly accessible. Nevertheless, when the direction and width of the contamination plume are known, a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) across the polluted plume, downstream to the sources, can be installed to stop the plume and prevent further contamination. At this site, where chlorinated solvent contamination has been found at different spots and a southward spreading observed, a PRB is created by injecting a remedial agent composed of zero-valent-iron (ZVI) on carbon substrate, together with bacterial culture. This composition has previously shown promising results in terms of effectiveness and speed for contamination breakdown, based on laboratory results. In this project, we use time-lapse cross-borehole DCIP to map the spatial distribution of the injected materials, and the chemical changes happening in the PRB and downstream.

 

Our collaboration partners are DTU Miljø and the Capital Region of Denmark, who also provide funding to the project.

 


Gallery

  • ERT/IP
  • ABEM Terrameter LS
  • Custom borehole electrodes
  • DTU Miljø
  • The Capital Region of Denmark
  • COWI