PNNL

Abstract

A field-scale remediation technique for TCE and chromate is currently being implemented which uses a chemical treatment to reduce existing iron(III) in sediments. While reduction of some contaminants is well established, TCE data show that dechlorination is more complex, and the role of iron oxides to catalyze the reaction is not well understood. The purpose of this laboratory-scale study was to investigate the influence of temperature and partial sediment reduction on TCE dechlorination. Fully reduced sediments can degrade TCE at sufficiently fast rates (1.2 to 19 h) during static and transport experiments over 2oC to 25oC that a successful barrier could be made at the field scale. In contrast, partially reduced sediment resulted in up to a 3 order of magnitude decrease in the TCE dechlorination rate. While minimally reduced sediment had nearly no TCE reactivity, > 40% reduced sediment had considerably faster dechlorination rates. The second-order dependence of the TCE dechlorination rate on the fraction of reduced iron demonstrates the significant role of the iron oxide surface (as a catalyst or for surface coordination) for TCE dechlorination. Based on these results, the field-scale reduction was designed with specific reagent concen-trations, temperature, and flow rates to efficiently create a reductive barrier.