Stochastic-convective transport with nonlinear reaction and mixing: application to intermediate-scale experiments in aerobic biodegradation in saturated porous media

Final Technical Report for DOE Award DE-FG02-07ER64403 [Modeling of Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation for the Immobilization of Strontium-90 Using a Variable Velocity Streamtube Ensemble]

“…Ginn et al (1995) describe a travel-time approach using streamlines to simulate biodegradation with microbial growth in theory. Ginn (2001) and Ginn et al (2001) extend the Ginn et al (1995) approach to a streamtube method and apply to data from an experiment involving aerobic biodegradation of benzoate in a two-dimensional heterogeneous flow field with microbial growth and attachment-detachment to surfaces. Cirpka and Kitanidis (2001) use this method for vertical recirculation to stimulate cometabolic dechlorination of trichloroethene by alternating oxygen and toluene injections.…”

“…Essentially, two locations are assigned with the same concentration if they have the same travel time. The travel times in Cirpka and Kitanidis (2001) were determined using particle tracking developed by Pollock (1988); those in Ginn et al (2001) were determined by transient deconvolution of the breakthrough curve of a passive tracer.…”

“…A critical advantage of streamline methods is the ability to simulate transport in non-uniform or highly heterogeneous or unknown subsurface conditions. In this case, tracer tests can be easily implemented to evaluate travel time distributions which eliminate the need for classification of many aquifer properties Ginn et al, 2001;Luo and Cirpka, 2008). This is advantage is a primary reason a streamtube ensemble was selected for studies at the VZRP.…”

A sequential partly iterative approach for multicomponent reactive transport with CORE2D

“…Numerical models have been increasingly used for this purpose, a trend that will continue because more sophisticated models and codes are being developed and computer costs keep decreasing. Significant efforts and attempts have been made during recent years toward the development of such tools (Kirkner et al, 1985;Kaluarachchi and Parker, 1990;Steefel and Van Cappellen, 1990;Lensing et al, 1994;Salvage and Yeh, 1998;Ayora et al, 1998;Steefel and Lichtner, 1998;Tebes-Stevens et al, 1998;Yabusaki et al, 1998;Chilakapati et al, 2000;Saaltink et al, 2000;Xu et al, 2000;Yeh, 2000;Ginn et al, 2001;Regnier et al, 2002;Saaltink et al, 2003;Pruess et al, 2004;Maher et al, 2006;Yang, 2006;Yang et al, 2007;Yang et al, 2008a,b). A recent review on reactive transport modelling is presented by Steefel et al(2005).…”

Technical Report

“…A variety of kinetic models have been successfully used to describe data from laboratory and field experiments and have yielded important insights into how microbial processes control material and energy flows in natural and engineered systems (Van Capellen and Wang, 1996;Beyenal et al, 2001;Ginn et al, 2001;Yeh et al, 2001a,b;Liu et al, 2001;Burgos et al, 2002;Yabusaki et al, 2007). Perhaps their greatest utility has been in understanding the patterns and rates of substrate utilization by pure or mixed cultures in laboratory microcosms (Watson et al, 2003) or in more complex engineered systems such as anaerobic waste water digesters (Mosey and Fernandes, 1989;Smith and McCarty, 1990;McCarty and Mosey, 1991).…”