Mathematical Model for Multiphase Extraction Simulation
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 6
Abstract
In this work, a model was built to simulate the multiphase extraction (MPE) applied to soil polluted by toluene. The model is composed of three differential partial equations simulating the multiphase flow of the three present phases using the capillarity equations and four equations to simulate the transport and the transfer between the three phases. The model was applied to a hypothetical pollution at field scale. A first step was applied to simulate the toluene propagation in the soil in saturated and unsaturated zones during a period of 2 months and its distribution in different phases. Results show a decrease of nonaqueous-phase liquid (NAPL) residual saturation under the effect of mass transfers between phases. It was observed that the propagation by gas-phase diffusion was greater than liquid-phase diffusion. The MPE application shows the important effect of the strainer location and the applied vacuum on the velocity fields. The proposed model shows the limitation of the MPE method in the capillary zone, which could not be remediated after 1 year of treatment. This observation confirms the necessity to ameliorate the process by lowering or deepening the groundwater or by using several extraction wells. The mass transfer coefficients were estimated from the literature. This work also highlighted the importance of a good identification of parameters.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. D. Esrael for his contribution.
References
Albergaria, J. T., Alvim-Ferraz, M. D. C., and Delerue-Matos, C. (2008). “Soil vapor extraction in sandy soils: Influence of airflow rate.” Chemosphere, 73(9), 1557–1561.
Benremita, H. (2002). “Approche Expérimentale et Simulation Numerique du Transfert de Solvants chlorés en Aquifère Alluvial Contrôlé.” Ph.D. thesis, Université Louis Pasteurde Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
Brusseau, M. L., and Rao, P. S. C. (1989). “Sorption nonideality during organic contaminant transport in porous media.” CRC Crit. Rev. Environ. Control, 19(1), 33–99.
Chao, K. P., Say Kee, O., and Angelos, P. (1998). “Water-to-air mass transfer of VOCs: Laboratory-scale air sparging system.” J. Environ. Eng., 1054–1060.
Chao, K.-P., Ong, S. K., and Huang, M. C. (2008). “Mass transfer of VOCs in laboratory-scale air sparging tank.” J. Hazard. Mater., 152(3), 1098–1107.
Come, J. M., and Le Thiez, P. (1998). “SIMUSCOPP, un modèle numérique original de migration des polluants organiques et de réhabilitation des sites.”, Société Hydrotechnique de France, Chambéry, France.
Cotel, S. (2008). “Etude des transferts sol/nappe/atmosphère/bâtiments Application aux sols pollués par des Composés Organiques Volatils.” Ph.D. thesis, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France.
Delshad, M., Pope, G. A., and Sepehrnoor, K. (1996). “A compositional simulation for modeling surfactant enhanced aquifer remediation. 1: Formulation.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 23(4), 303–327.
de Souza, M. M., Oostrom, M., White, M. D., da Silva, G. C., and Brabosa, M. C. (2016). “Simulation of subsurface multiphase contaminant extraction using a bioslurping well model.” Transp Porous Med., 114(3), 649–673.
Digiulio, D. C., and Varadhan, R. (2001). “Development of recommendations and methods to support assessment of soil venting performance and closure.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC.
Dixon, K. L., and Nichols, R. L. (2006). “Soil vapor extraction system design: A case study comparing vacuum and pore-gas velocity cutoff criteria.” Remediat. J., 17(1), 55–67.
Esrael, D., Kacem, M., and Benadda, B. (2017). “Modelling mass transfer during venting/soil vapour extraction: Non-aqueous phase liquid/gas mass transfer coefficient estimation.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 202, 70–79.
Gidda, T., Stiver, W. H., and Zytner, R. G. (2011). “Measuring aqueous-air and sorbed-aqueous mass transfer coefficients for application in soil vapor extraction.” J. Environ. Eng., 880–888.
Hartsock, J. (2014). “Evaluating the effectiveness of pre-remedial LNAPL recovery modeling using the ‘LNAPL distribution and recovery model’ at two active remediation sites.” Ph.D. thesis, Emporia State Univ., Emporia, KS.
Helmig, R., Flemisch, B., Wolff, M., Ebigbo, A., and Class, H. (2013). “Model coupling for multiphase flow in porous media.” Adv. Water Resour., 51, 52–66.
Huang, Y. F. (2007). “Remediation of petroleum-contaminated sites through simulation of a DPVE-aided cleanup process. Part 1: Model development.” Ground Water, 29, 347–365.
Hwang, H. T., et al. (2013). “A multiphase flow and multispecies reactive transport model for DNAPL-involved compound specific isotope analysis.” Adv. Water Resour., 59, 111–122.
Jeong, J., and Charbeneau, R. J. (2014). “An analytical model for predicting LNAPL distribution and recovery from multi-layered soils.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 156, 52–61.
Kaluarachchi, J. J., and Parker, J. C. (1990). “Modeling multicomponent organic chemical transport in three-fluid-phase porous media.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 5(4), 349–374.
Kaluarachchi, J. J., and Parker, J. C. (1992). “Multiphase flow with a simplified model for oil entrapment.” Transp. Porous Media., 7(1), 1–14.
Katyal, A. K., Kaluarachchi, J. J., and Parker, J. C. (1991). “MOFAT: A two-dimensional finite element program for multiphase flow and multicomponent transport.”, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Ada, OK.
Kim, J., and Corapcioglu, M. Y. (2003). “Modeling dissolution and volatilization of LNAPL sources migrating on the groundwater table.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 65(1), 137–158.
Lenhard, R. J. (1992). “Measurement and modeling of three-phase saturation-pressure hysteresis.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 9(3), 243–269.
Lenhard, R. J., Oostrom, M., and Dane, J. H. (2004). “A constitutive model for air-NAPL-water flow in the vadose zone accounting for immobile, non-occluded (residual) NAPL in strongly water-wet porous media.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 73(1–4), 283–304.
Lenhard, R. J., and Parker, J. C. (1987). “Measurement and prediction of saturation-pressure relationships in three-phase porous media systems.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 1(4), 407–424.
Lenhard, R. J., Rayner, J. L., and Davis, G. B. (2017). “A practical tool for estimating subsurface LNAPL distributions and transmissivity using current and historical fluid levels in groundwater wells: Effects of entrapped and residual LNAPL.” J. Contam. Hydrol., 205, 1–11.
Li, J. B., Huang, G. H., Chakma, A., and Zeng, G. M. (2003). “Numerical simulation of dual-phase vacuum extraction to remove nonaqueous phase liquids in subsurface.” J. Hazard. Toxic Radioact. Waste, 106–113.
Lo, I. M., Hu, L. M., and Meegoda, J. N. (2004). “Centrifuge modeling of light nonaqueous phase liquids transport in unsaturated soils.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron., 535–539.
Miller, C. T., Poirier-McNeil, M. M., and Mayer, A. S. (1990). “Dissolution of trapped nonaqueous phase liquids: Mass transfer characteristics.” Water Resour. Res., 26(11), 2783–2796.
Millington, R. (1959). “Gas diffusion in porous media.” Science, 130(3367), 100–102.
Mossmann, J. R., and Koch-Mathian, J. Y. (2001). “Gestion des sites potentiellement polluéset évaluation simplifiée des risques, suivi de la mise en œuvre de la version 2.”, Bureau de recherches Géologiques et Minières, Orléans, France.
Parker, J. C., and Lenhard, R. J. (1987). “A model for hysteretic constitutive relations governing multiphase flow. 1: Saturation-pressure relations.” Water Resour. Res., 23(12), 2187–2196.
Parker, J. C., Lenhard, R. J., and Kuppusamy, T. (1987). “A parametric model for constitutive properties governing multiphase flow in porous media.” Water Resow. Res., 23(4), 618–624.
Parker, J. C., Zhu, J. L., Johnson, T. G., Kremesec, V. J., and Hockman, E. L. (1994). “Modeling free product migration and recovery at hydrocarbon spill sites.” Ground Water, 32(1), 119–128.
Pasha, A. Y., Hu, L., and Meegoda, J. N. (2014). “Numerical simulations of a light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) movement in variably saturated soils with capillary hysteresis.” Can. Geotech. J., 51(9), 1046–1062.
Rahbeh, M. E. (2004). “Analysis of mas transfer processes during advective air movement in contaminated soil.” Ph.D. thesis, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN.
Rahbeh, M. E., and Mohtar, R. H. (2007). “Application of multiphase transport models to field remediation by air sparging and soil vapor extraction.” J. Hazard. Mater., 143(1–2), 156–170.
Sookhak Lari, K., Davis, G. B., and Johnston, C. D. (2016). “Incorporating hysteresis in a multi-phase multi-component NAPL modelling framework; a multi-component LNAPL gasoline example.” Adv. Water Res., 96, 190–201.
USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). (2002). Soil vapor extraction and bioventing, Washington, DC.
van der Ham, A. J. G., and Brouwers, H. J. H. (1998). “Modelling and experimental investigation of transient, nonequilibrium mass transfer during steam stripping of a nonaqueous phase liquid in unsaturated porous media.” Water Resour. Res., 34(1), 47–54.
van Genuchten, M. T. (1980). “A closed form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44(5), 892–898.
van Genuchten, M. T., and Alves, W. J. (1982). “Analytical solutions of the one-dimensional convective-dispersive solute transport equation.”, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, DC.
White, M. D., and Oostrom, M. (2006). “STOMP—Subsurface transport over multiple phases, version 4.0. User’s guide.”, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA.
Wilkins, M. D., Abriola, L. M., Pennell, K. D. (1995). “An experimental investigation of rate-limited nonaqueous phase liquid volatilization in unsaturated porous media: Steady state mass transfer.” Water Resour. Res., 31(9), 2159–2172.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 6 • June 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 26, 2017
Accepted: Nov 30, 2017
Published online: Apr 5, 2018
Published in print: Jun 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Sep 5, 2018
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.