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Remediation of arsenic-contaminated groundwater using media-injected permeable reactive barriers with a modified montmorillonite: sand tank studies

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Abstract

A modified montmorillonite (MMT) was prepared using an acid activation-sodium activation-iron oxide coating method to improve the adsorption capacities of natural MMTs. For MMT, its interlamellar distance increased from 12.29 to 13.36 Å, and goethite (α-FeOOH) was intercalated into its clay layers. Two novel media-injected permeable reactive barrier (MI-PRB) configurations were proposed for removing arsenic from groundwater. Sand tank experiments were conducted to investigate the performance of the two MI-PRBs: Tank A was filled with quartz sand. Tank B was packed with quartz sand and zero-valent iron (ZVI) in series, and the MMT slurry was respectively injected into them to form reactive zones. The results showed that for tank A, total arsenic (TA) removal of 98.57 % was attained within the first 60 mm and subsequently descended slowly to 88.84 % at the outlet. For tank B, a similar spatial variation trend was observed in the quartz sand layer, and subsequently, TA removal increased to ≥99.80 % in the ZVI layer. TA removal by MMT mainly depended on both surface adsorption and electrostatic adhesion. TA removal by ZVI mainly relied on coagulation/precipitation and adsorption during the iron corrosion. The two MI-PRBs are feasible alternatives for in situ remediation of groundwater with elevated As levels.

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Acknowledgments

This study is financially supported jointly by NSFC (41172226) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2652013024).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Ocean Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Ximing Luo

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Water Resources & Environmental Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), 29 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    Ximing Luo & Guoxin Huang

  3. CERI Eco Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100053, China

    Haifei Liu

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory of Meat Processing Technology, China Meat Research Center, Beijing, 100068, China

    Guoxin Huang, Yan Zhao & Xu Li

  5. Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, Beijing, 100037, China

    Ye Li

Authors
  1. Ximing Luo
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  2. Haifei Liu
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  3. Guoxin Huang
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  4. Ye Li
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  5. Yan Zhao
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  6. Xu Li
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Correspondence to Guoxin Huang.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Luo, X., Liu, H., Huang, G. et al. Remediation of arsenic-contaminated groundwater using media-injected permeable reactive barriers with a modified montmorillonite: sand tank studies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 870–877 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5254-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5254-4

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