Calibration of Reactive Transport Models for Remediation of Mine Drainage in Solid-Substrate Biocolumns
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 9
Abstract
Experimental data pertaining to two pairs of solid-substrate sulfate-reducing biocolumns for remediation of mine drainage were used for calibrating and testing new reactive transport models based on sulfate reduction and sulfide precipitation linked to rate-limiting solid-substrate hydrolysis. First-order (F) and Contois (C) kinetics for decomposition as well as different numbers of pools of decomposable materials were proposed in different models (F1–F3 and C1–C3). Effluent sulfate concentrations for one of the columns were used as the basis for calibrating the different models and, due to limitations in the calibration data set, the number of adjustable model parameters was limited using parameter tying. Calibrated models were ranked using Akaike information criterion, and Model C2, followed by Model C1, based on Contois kinetics, emerged as the models that were supported to a greater extent by the data. For an independent experimental data set, model testing was performed using Models C2 and C1 with parameters from the previous calibration resulting in good approximations of effluent sulfate. For the calibration data set, longer-term model predictions for effluent sulfate, decomposable substrates, and microbial populations also were performed. The reactive transport models represent a potentially valuable tool for the design of solid-substrate bioreactors used for the treatment of mining influenced water, although future model validation using longer-term field data sets will be necessary to confirm the model predictions.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the U.S. EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program under Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDR-82951501-0 as part of the U.S. EPA’s Rocky Mountain Regional Hazardous Substance Research Center. The writers are grateful to Dr. E. Poeter for assistance on the application of multimodel ranking.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 9 • September 2010
Pages: 914 - 925
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 24, 2009
Accepted: Feb 3, 2010
Published online: Feb 8, 2010
Published in print: Sep 2010
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